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IN SUABIA-LAND 

(WURTEMBERG) 



library of tbe ©teat TOlorlO 

Wo, 7 



LIBRARY OF THE GREAT WORLD 

COMPRISING ORIGINAL VOLUMES OF 

Ibistorg, Mogvapby, Science, Gravel, 3Etc. 

In cloth and morocco, with frontispiece. Published 
for subscribers at 30 cents in cloth, and 
45 cents in morocco. 

EDITED BY 

A. VAN DOREN HONEYMAN 



BOOKS ISSUED. 

THE AZTECS. By The Editor. 

REINDEER-LAND. By The Editor. 

THE HOLLAND OF TO-DAY. By J. A Mets. 

HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE. By Wm. H. 
Larrabee, LL. D. 

THE PERUVIANS. By Arthur Howard Noll. 

ADMIRAL PAUL JONES. By The Editor. 

IN SUABIA-LAND. By Laura Maxwell. 

some succeeding volumes: 

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE STARS. By 
The Editor. 

ALFRED THE GREAT. By Thb Editor. 

Etc., Etc., Etc. 

[Order of publication of volumes not certain.] 



• • - — - 




Castle Lichtenstein 



Xibrars of tbe <5reat morlo 

IN SUABIA-LAND 

(WURTEMBERG) 

An Appreciation 



BY 

LAURA MAXWELL 




plainfielfc, Hew Jerseg 
•fconesman & Company 

1905 



1 (3 R A R Y of OONG I? ESS? " , , m • . -<\ / • I W" 
_ . , Dear Fatherland, what blessing 

What gift art thou denied? 
ne-n. -» nmt Of thine exalted station 

1 lyUD jOne hears on every side. 

^ ■ J' JLj say thou art an Eden, 

\U+<** % // / VO* Jxhou art a garden fair; 

$ CL X&» ; v /»»lf ow can we better praise thee 
y ^/ ^" 76 | Thou land beyond compare? 

_ Thy men, are they not ever 
" "Industrious, frank, upright? 
In peaceful art instructed, 
Yet bravest in a fight? 

And are not all thy women 

Domestic, pious, true? 
With hearts where Weinsberg's legend 
Still blossoms forth anew? 

—From Uhland. 



THE CHAPTERS 



I. Geography and Early History 5 

II. The House of Hohenstauffen 16 

III. The House of Wurtemberg 22 

IV. Household Ways and Social Customs 32 

V. Religion, Funerals and Weddings 42 

VI. Holidays and Festivals 48 

VII. Some General Customs 53 

VIII. The Neckar Valley 62 

IX. The Suabian Alb 75 

X. Art and Literature 86 



Copyright, 1905, by 
Honeyman & Company 

Published Aug. 28, 1905 



"Suabia, though lost from the map, survives forever in 
history, poetry and romance.'* 

— TlLTON. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 

CHAPTER I 
Geography and Early History 

On the top of the Rothenberg, an eminence 
which rises from the bank of the Neckar near the 
centre of the realm, stood once in medieval 
times the castle of a Suabian Count, who ex- 
ercised therein so generous and free a hospi- 
tality that the title, "Wirth-auf-dem-Berg" 
(Host on the Hill), was accorded him, and be- 
came in time that of his family and, later, of the 
kingdom. This popular tradition, now rejected 
by serious historians, easily wins acceptance with 
all sojourners in this beautiful, friendly region, so 
truly does it accord with the prevalent spirit of 
sincere hospitality yet pervading the land. Off 
from the great arteries of travel, unblazoned in 
guide-books by great natural wonders, or famous 
achievement, it is only to those travellers who 
seek out its many charms that Wurtemberg re- 
veals itself. The hurrying tourist sees from the 
(5) 



6 IN SUABIA-LAND 



window of his railway carriage only the beauti- 
ful, spreading panorama of mountain and valley, 
or inspects the public collections of artistic treas- 
ures gathered in its largest city. A full apprecia- 
tion can only come from tarrying among its peo- 
ple, sharing their simple delights, revelling in the 
great natural beauty of this land of forest and 
mountain, and discovering for oneself the hid- 
den treasures of legend and art sequestered among 
the historic ruins of its ancient cloisters and 
castles. 

Stuttgart, the capital, is delightfully situated 
on the Nesenbach, just above its juncture with 
the Neckar, 900 feet above the sea-level. The 
city is surrounded by picturesque, wooded hills, 
and laid out with much taste and beauty. Not 
attaining great importance until made capital 
of the Duchy in 1482, its history makes no part 
of the early traditions of the land. Its chief 
growth has been during the last two centuries, 
during which good architects of the later Renais- 
sance have made of it an attractive city, with 
fine public buildings, pleasant homes and beauti- 
ful parks and suburbs. There are many interest- 
ing monuments and a good collection of ancient 
and modern art. There are also many present- 
day attractions in the way of music and litera- 
ture — for Stuttgart is a great book-publishing 
centre — while it offers the many joys of a less 
strenuous life than can be lived in the more 
bustling cities of North Germany. Like all for- 
eign capitals, however, it is more or less cos- 
mopolitan in character, and, for a closer view 



IN SUABIA-LAND 7 



of family life and surviving national customs, a 
more thoroughly Suabian environment should be 
sought in one of the smaller towns, where an- 
cient tradition and usages still prevail. 

Old Suabia. — A popular ballad asserts that 
"Wurtemberg Germany's garden is and Ess- 
lingen its Paradise," and it was this latter, quaint 
old town, nine miles above Stuttgart, that re- 
ceived so kindly into its midst the American 
stranger who now writes this appreciation of 
Wurtemberg's charms and hospitality. To be 
the one Amerikanisches Mddele in a foreign 
town of 25,000 inhabitants is necessarily to oc- 
cupy a position of some prominence in local gos- 
sip, and when the spirit of the place is kindly, a 
cordial interchange of curiosity can open up most 
delightful opportunities of acquaintance and in- 
formation. 

"Suabia" is no longer in the geography. The 
country so familiar in history and literature, and 
so rich in popular tradition, has no present-day 
entirety, but its domains belong in part to each 
of the three modern kingdoms, of Baden, Ba- 
varia and Wurtemberg. This last contains, how- 
ever, the kernel of the old Suabia, and, as on the 
seventeenth of March all Irishmen rank them- 
selves with greatest pride as true "sons of Erin," 
so the fondest boast of the patriot of Wurtem- 
berg is always, "I am a Schwab." 

The old dialect, once the language of court and 
literature, is the preferred speech of the people, 
and the adjective "Schwabisch" is of most univer- 
sal and favorite application. 



8 IN SUABIA-LAND 



Geography and Early History. — The present 
kingdom of Wiirtemberg, now a part of the great 
German Empire, is wedged in between the prin- 
cipalities of Baden and Bavaria, the beautiful 
Lake Constance, of which one-fifth belongs to 
Wiirtemberg, making its southern boundary with 
Switzerland. Its area is 7,528 square miles. It 
rises in a successive series of hills and mountains, 
only one-fourth of the country being rated as 
level land. The result is an exceedingly pictur- 
esque region — full of natural beauty and bold 
scenic effects; a stepping-stone to the grander 
Alps just beyond. The valley of the Neckar and 
its tributaries forms the northern portion, a fertile 
lowland, with isolated, vine-clad hills. Between 
this and the valley of the Danube, which crosses 
the land in a northeasterly direction, rises the 
Suabian Alb, or Jura, a very striking range, 
making a sharply-defined, high wall of successive 
peaks from Hohenzollern across into the Bava- 
rian border. Behind this are the pines and firs 
of the Black Forest, which constitutes the south- 
ern portion of the kingdom. The detached prin- 
cipality of Hohenzollern, which belongs to Prus- 
sia, lies in central-south-east. 

Wiirtemberg stands third among the German 
states as regards area, and fourth as regards pop- 
ulation. This latter is chiefly agricultural, the 
farms ranging from two and a-half to twenty- 
five acres, but thirty per cent, of the land is 
forest, which is, however, a source of revenue to 
the state. The chief crops are hay, oats, clover, 
barley and potatoes, and the small farms, which 



IN SUABIA-LAND 9 



are laid out in long and short strips rather than in 
irregular patches, as in America, give the effect 
of great rag carpets laid over valleys and across 
lower hills. 

Wurtemberg's history is one of romance. Tra- 
ditions hover over all its many hills and forests, 
affecting still the quiet life and thought of to-day. 
The kingdom, with its present boundaries, was 
only constituted in 1809. Its early history 
emerges gradually from that of the great German 
realm, and, later, from that of Suabia. 

In the First Century before Christ it was the 
Kelts that held a roving possession of this Rhine- 
land, and of this people we have but scanty 
knowledge. That they were not wholly rude 
barbarians, ignorant of all the arts of civilization, 
can be proved by the beautiful treasures found in 
what are called the Heiden Graben (heathen 
graves) scattered all over Suabia. Some of these 
must be dated back three thousand years, and 
from the numerous great hills erected over the 
chieftain's graves, as well as from the lesser 
mounds of their more humble followers, have 
been taken many interesting and beautiful ar- 
ticles of household art and utility. Gold, bronze, 
silver, iron, utensils for domestic use, or articles 
of personal adornment, richly decorated and 
finely wrought, which in these past ages played 
their part in the daily Keltic life, are now to be 
seen in the Stuttgart Museum. Some of these bear 
mark of the Fifth Century before Christ and 
are of Grecian manufacture, "intimating," says 
a writer, "an exchange of greetings between the 



io IN SUABIA-LAND 



land and time of Sophocles and Plato and this 
remote, unclassical country." The traces of 
this Keltic domination are still to be seen in 
the remains of sacrificial altars and in the many 
vestiges of elaborate roads and walls, while the 
ruins of more than one hundred of their strong- 
holds remain in Wiirtemberg to this day. 

The Roman Conquest. — The Roman Conquest 
followed, and of that, too, we find lasting me- 
f morials, the stones of which are left in situ, while 
I the movable treasures now enrich the town and 
\ city museums. Against the constant incursions 
> and attacks of the savage tribes the southern 
conquerors were compelled to erect barriers, and 
the great extent and strength of some of these 
\ fortifications, revealing, as they do, an almost 
superhuman energy, and labor, have gained for 
their remains the name of "Devil's walls. " 
Highroads, for the transportation of the vast 
armies and colonies brought to conquer and garri- 
son the land, were built, and Cannstatt on the 
Neckar was thus anciently connected with Baden- 
Baden and Strasbourg. 

The fortress was a necessity and around it grew 
up villages which, in some cases, grew later to 
cities, populated by soldiers' families, artisans, mer- 
chants and peasants. Near the high roads 
would be built occasional villas, the summer re- 
sorts of the Italian nobles or Rome's recompense 
to her successful generals. Recent excavations 
have revealed mosaics, frescoes, statues, vases and 
other artistic treasures, the decorations of these 
Roman pleasure-houses. As many as five hun- 



IN SUABIA-LAND n 



dred of these Roman remains have been found in 
Wiirtemberg, all in the Neckar Valley or on the 
Alb, for great' territories of the land remained 
in thick forest absolutely uninhabited. 

Only one of the ancient cities, Rottenburg on 
the Neckar, can today show traces of this period 
of occupation. Here are the foundations of the 
castles on either bank; the Aqueduct, Temple, 
Theatre and public and private buildings can be 
plainly traced. With the Romans came their 
gods, and altars to Jupiter and Juno, Apollo and 
Diana stood on spots long since reconsecrated by 
pious hearts to the worship of the God of Luther. 
The Roman domination lasted but two centuries 
north of the Danube, leaving, however, lasting 
traces upon the after development of the country, 
even though the civilizing influences of the South- 
land were followed by a barbaric inundation from 
the North. 

In 213 the Alamanni, or Suevi, appeared first 
offensively on the boundaries of the Roman realm. 
They were beaten back by Emperor Caracalla, 
but in 270 had gained possession of this north- 
ern portion, and Rome not only withdrew, but 
trembled. Centuries of strife among the wan- 
dering tribes, Alamannic, Burgundian and Frank- 
ish, followed. Through the missionary zeal of the 
latter Christianity was introduced and St. Mi- 
chael and St. Martin succeeded Thor and Odin as 
tutelary deities. 

The Cloister and Charlemagne. — Monks and 
traveling preachers carried the new Gospel 
through the land, and in the Eighth Century ap- 



IN SUAB LA-LAND 



peared the cloister. Founded by monastic zeal, 
or kingly vow, these became, during the troub- 
lous times which followed, alike the refuge of the 
unprotected and the retreat of the disabled war- 
riors; and, during succeeding centuries, they 
wielded great power in the land. Under Count 
Eberhard im Bart there were nine hundred in 
Wiirtemberg and, later, fully one-third of that 
realm was in their possession, the fruitful cause of 
many of the kingdoms' woes. 

The oldest cloister is that of Ellwagen, found- 
ed in 755 by Bishop Erlulf. Others followed 
fast and were richly endowed. Wiirtemberg 
now acquired its native saints, the holy Meurad 
and Regiswindis, whose traditional history and 
miracles can be traced in memorials and relics in 
the churches. 

In the Eighth Century the land was divided 
into provinces, the ruler or count of which was 
appointed by the King. Now first appears the 
mention of a province of Wiirtemberg, the be- 
ginning of the present kingdom. Suabia was but 
a small portion of the extensive realm of Charle- 
magne (d. 814), and did not play any prominent 
part therein. During the reign of that great or- 
ganizer the land was brought under compara- 
tively close supervision, and many changes in na- 
tional customs gradually took place. We now see 
the beginning of the manor house. A Wiirtem- 
berg historian says that in the Suabian common 
law of this period it was declared that a man 
might, without having to ask special permission 
of the realm, build a residence surrounded by a 



IN SUABIA-LAND 13 



wall so high that one sitting upon a horse could 
reach the top with his hand, but without turrets 
or breastwork. Most of the land belonged to the 
King, and the rest to the nobles and the church, 
for Charlemagne was a strong upholder of papal 
power and gave rich benefices, establishing, also, 
classical schools for the education of priests. All 
unclaimed land belonged to the realm, as well as 
all the rivers and highways, and any bestowal 
must be by a royal brief. As a result, the mass of 
the population was dependent upon the manor 
lords for the soil to cultivate, and paid for it in 
crops and personal service. 

Thus the necessities of existence brought about 
the feudal system, with all its evils. In time relief 
came through the introduction of cavalry into the 
army and the consequent opening up of independ- 
ent careers through the gate of knighthood, won 
by personal valor and hardihood ; also by the rise 
of other than a land aristocracy. Agriculture be- 
gan to flourish, the example being set in the kingly 
domains, where were instituted sample agricul- 
tural stations. The first vineyard was planted 
near Heilbronn in 766 — the precursor of those 
which now cover the rising, fertile ground of the 
valley of the Rhine, and flax, peas, beans, 
lentils and dyestuffs were cultivated. Charle- 
magne's agricultural list included seventy- 
three different kinds of garden products and six- 
teen varieties of trees. Trades sprang up and 
German native art had its beginning. 

In 814 Charlemagne died, and in 843 his great 
realm was divided into three independent por- 



i4 IN SUABIA-LAND 



tions, all the people of German tongue being 
united under the sceptre of Louis the German, 
grandson of Charlemagne, whose principal palace 
was at Ulm, on the Danube. Louis has been 
called the Father of his Country, for he laid the 
groundwork of German nationality. Karl the 
Fat succeeded to the throne and was crowned 
king at Rome by the Pope in 88 1, but, seven 
years later, death alone saved him from enforced 
abdication in favor of his nephew, Arnulf von 
Karnten, who later was crowned Roman Em- 
peror. The Carlovingian race ended with this 
latter's son, Louis, who, was made king at six 
years of age, and dying at eighteen, is known in 
history as Louis the Child. Rivalry among the 
ducal houses for the succession followed, and 
strife and contention prevailed; civil strife 
among themselves and desperate righting with the 
Magyars, who descended in hordes upon the land. 

The Magyars: Emp. Henry IV. — In 917 the 
prize of the German lordship, under Henry of 
Saxony, fell to Burkhard, one of the Suabian 
Dukes, and his descendants ruled until 1080. On 
St. Lawrence's day, the tenth of August, 955, was 
fought the famous and decisive battle against the 
invading Magyars, when those hosts were put 
to confusion by the German and Frankish armies. 
Before the battle the Christian army had made a 
solemn appeal to their God for help, the King 
vowing that, if Christ would give them the vic- 
tory over their enemy, he would build a bishopric 
for St. Lawrence in the city of Merseburg. Of 
one hundred thousand Hungarians only seven 



IN SUABIA-LAND 15 



escaped. Joy over the deliverance was widespread 
and universal, for Christendom had been in im- 
minent peril. 

Rudolf was the last of this line of royal Dukes. 
During his reign (1057-1080) arose the great 
historic contest between the Emperor and the 
Pope, which for a long time to come desolated 
the whole of civilized Europe. Gregory VII. 
was in the Papal chair; Henry was Emperor, 
and the ambition of the former was met by the 
opposition of the latter. The Pope availed him- 
self of all the weapons of his spiritual office, and 
the land was put under the ban of the Holy 
Church. Henry crossed the Alps and made his 
historic penance, standing three days in penitent's 
garb in the court of the Castle of Canossa, and 
the ban was withdrawn, but Rudolf of Suabia, 
— called by the Pope "the holy Peter's most be- 
loved Son" — was made Emperor by the Papal 
party (1079). Henry, at news of this, hastened 
back over the Alps and his troops overran the 
valley of the Neckar, which suffered all the hor- 
rors of strife and devastation during the long 
years of civil war that ensued. Gregory again 
excommunicated Henry and his supporters, who, 
in turn, called together a synod at Mainz, and de- 
clared a new Pope, Clement III., who now is- 
sued his papal ban against Rudolf. In the bat- 
tle of Hohen Molsen (October 15, 1080), Ru- 
dolf was slain. He was frightfully mangled, his 
right hand being severed from his body, which 
was popularly recognized in those times as a 
proof that the judgment of God had come upon 



16 IN SUABIA-LAND 



him, for had he not with that very right hand 
falsely sworn allegiance to the Emperor, whose 
throne he had later usurped? 



CHAPTER II 
The House of Hohenstauffen 

"Think on that mountain rising high and slim, 
The fairest peak of all the Suabian hills, 
And boldly bearing on its royal head 
The Hohenstauffens' old ancestral house. 
And far around, in mellow sunshine spread, 
Green, winding valley of a fruitful land 
Sparkling with streams and herd-supporting meadows — 
With wooded hills that woo the hunt and sound 
Of convent vespers from the nearer dells.'* 

— Uhland. 

This is the most glorious period of Suabian his- 
tory, that of the domination of the House of 
Hohenstauffen. The ruins of their old castle, 
crowning its isolated mountain-top, can be seen 
far and wide from the lowlands of the Neckar, a 
visible reminder of those romantic days of legend 
and chivalry when personal power and manly 
worth dominated both Nature and people. The 
Emperors of this race ruled with excessive bril- 
liancy and ability, and even to-day hold the most 
popular place in German tradition, as in their 
lifetime they did in the hearts of their subjects. 
Of the progenitor of the line nothing is known; 
he was one of the many small counts of the land, 
and his descendants derived their family name 
from that of the high hill on which he perched 
his family fortress. 

Frederick von Hohenstauffen was a trusted 



IN SUABIA-LAND 17 



companion as well as a son-in-law of Henry IV., 
and in 1079 the Emperor created him Duke of 
Suabia, although it was thirty years before this 
claim was fully established. Henry died in 1106 
and Frederick the year previous. When Henry 
V. left his German domains for Italy to obtain 
his investiture, it was to Conrad and Frederick 
von Hohenstauffen, his own nephews, that he left 
the difficult task of maintaining the imperial pow- 
er at home. The Fifty-year War between Pope 
and Emperor was ended in 1122, and in 1125 
Henry V. died, leaving his nephew, Frederick, his 
understood successor. The choice of the Princes, 
however, was Lothair of Saxony, and the feuds 
of succession recommenced. In these wars is said 
to be found the origin of those designations 
Guelph and Ghibbeline, which have become 
world-famous through their influence on Italian 
and universal history. Duke Welf, whose fam- 
ily claims on the Lombard estates of the Countess 
Matilda gave rise to the Italian invasion and con- 
quest, fought for the position of German Emperor 
against Conrad and Frederick von Hohenstauf- 
fen. His battle cry was, Hie Welf! and that 
of his rivals was Hie Waiblingen! their former 
family name. These in Italian became later Guelf 
and Ghibbeline. 

At Lothair's death, which occurred in 1137, 
Conrad was chosen head of the kingdom, but 
not until 1143 was the strife over the succes- 
sion ended. To these times belongs the incident 
famous in song of "The True Wives of Weins- 
berg." At the surrender of the fortress of 



1 8 IN SUABIA-LAND 



Weinsberg, Emperor Conrad, the victor, gener- 
ously granted to the women-prisoners permission 
to leave the place and to take with them as much 
as they could carry on their shoulders. 

"Well, then, in Weinsberg be it told 
I grant a woman's prayer; 
Let all the women, young and old, 
Go forth with all their arms can hold 
And all their backs can bear. 

"Although the town was given to sack, 
Yet, with a throbbing breast, 
Each woman bore upon her back, 
Or in her arms, through smoke and wrack, 
The man she loved the best. 

"The Kaiser, though by craft beguiled, 
Was not to vengeance stirred, 
And watched the train as it denied, 
Nor stopped it, saying as he smiled, 
'A Kaiser keeps his word.' "* 

Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. — In 1146 

Bernard of Clairvaux preached the Second Cru- 
sade in Speyer, and Conrad put on the Crusader's 
mantle, and, with his young nephew, Frederick 
Barbarossa — the famous Redbeard — and an 
army of seventy thousand knights, started for 
Palestine. Many misfortunes befel and it was a 
reduced and disheartened company that returned 
the following year only to find civil strife again 
enkindled in Germany. 

In 1 152 Conrad died, and Frederick Barba- 
rossa began his eventful reign. The history of this 
Suabian House now becomes general history, for 
the exploits of these Hohenstauffen Emperors 
were of world-wide significance, and it is a uni- 
versal interest that is felt in the traditional 



*Theodore Tilton, in Suabian Stories. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 19 



awakening of the sleeping Redbeard, when the 
fullness of time calls for a renewal of his earthly 
warfare. Far happier might have been the per- 
sonal fate of these brilliant Emperors could they 
have curbed their ambitions and resisted the lure 
of Italian conquest and interference, which led 
so soon to their race extinction. Great was their 
prowess and skilful their marital diplomacy, but 
the fatal triumphs across the Alps led quickly to 
battle, murder and sudden death. 

Frederick Barbarossa was one of the most en- 
lightened and powerful rulers who ever swayed 
an imperial sceptre. High on a lance before the 
door of his tent hung his shield, a sign that he 
was ready upon summons to redress all wrongs. 
Six times he crossed the Alps at the head of an 
army, striking terror into Rome itself, making 
and deposing Popes, violating the sanctuary of 
St. Peter, and driving all enemies before him. 
He has been called the first free-thinker of mod- 
ern times, having declared that, as he had been 
this far the anvil, he now meant to be the ham- 
mer of the church. In his German dominions 
there was but little peace, the House of Welf 
offering continual combat. Only in 1184 could a 
great Festival of Peace be celebrated in Mainz. 
On Whitsuntide of that year almost the whole 
knighthood of the West gathered around the 
Emperor, who entertained the large company 
during three days. Encamped on the river bank, 
the spectacle of glittering armor and high-born 
dames, of the tournaments and joyous feasting, 
must have been most dazzling to a beholder. 



20 IN SUABIA-LAND 



During the festival the Emperor's two young sons 
received their spurs of knighthood. 

A time of true peace followed, broken by the 
news, which fell like a thunder bolt, that Jerusa- 
lem had been captured by the Turks. Pope 
Gregory VIII. called all Christendom to the res- 
cue, and Emperor Frederick responded with a 
large army. As usual, misfortune and sufferings 
were their lot. Hostile Greeks, and, worse still, 
famine and disease — foes which no bravery could 
subdue — fell upon them. Through Emperoi 
Frederick's valor, however, Iconium was taken, 
and the army was proceeding, when sudden death 
bereaved the hosts of their beloved leader. A 
plunge on horseback in a cold stream killed him, 
and the sorrowing army left his body behind in 
Antioch. 

Succeeding Emperors. — Two sons succeeded, 
Henry VI., who married the heiress of Sicily and 
added Southern Italy and Sicily to his dominions, 
and Philip. The history of the latter is very dra- 
matic. Educated as a priest and made Bishop of 
Wurzburg, he was called by his brother, Henry 
VI., to re-enter the world and assume the duties 
of Duke of Suabia. Soon succeeding his brother 
as Emperor, he was suddenly murdered in 120P 
His wife, the beautiful Irene, was she of who 
Walter von der Vogelweide sang in swee< t 
tones as the "Rose without a Thorn." Exam ^s 
they were of true domestic happiness and \ h- 
born refinement. 

Great was the lamentation when this be d 
ruler was so cruelly slain. One of his mc 



IN SUABIA-LAND 21 



companions, according to Belschner, laments him 
thus: "How like a shiningstar art thoufallen from 
Heaven, thou jewel among kings! The sun has 
gone down and it is night." Queen Irene died 
two months later of a broken heart. 

Frederick II., son of Henry VI., was again a 
World-Emperor, being one of the most remarka- 
ble figures of the Middle Ages in his character 
of Emperor, knight, scholar and philosopher ; the 
greatest ruler between Charlemagne and Napo- 
leon. Master of the six languages of his realm, 
he was also famous as a minnesinger, excelled in 
all knightly exercises and prowess, and wrote be- 
sides elaborate treatises on natural history and 
philosophy. Educated in Sicily, where he held a 
court renowned for chivalry and culture, he was 
above the simpler standard of Germany, and the 
history of his deeds and life do not properly be- 
long to Wiirtemberg, except for this kingdom's 
pride in this imperial scion of their Suabian House. 
Most of his life was spent in Italy, while his son, 
Conrad, assumed the duties and responsibilities 
of the Suabian realm. Because of the bitter en- 
mity between the Pope and the Emperor, all the 
dominions of the latter were put under the Papal 
^an, and Germany lost both faith and religion 
iring the struggle. 

Frederick died in 1250, and his son, Conrad, 
\\ it into Italy to acquire his inheritance there, 
bi^ died in 1254, leaving his young son, Conradin, 
a /oungest brother, Manfred, the last of the 
I a nstaufifen race. Manfred was crowned King 
:ily, where he held a court renowned for its 



22 IN SUABIA-LAND 



culture and chivalry, until, in 1265, he met a he- 
ro's death in battle against his foe, Charles of 
Anjou, who incarcerated Manfred's sons for life. 
The character of Charles was vindictive. A 
writer says: " Manfred was cruel also, but on 
the tomb of the Suabian hero the tears of genera- 
tions have fallen. Friendship was the jewel of 
the Hohenstauffen kings." 

This left Conradin alone in the struggle, and 
right manfully did the noble youth play his part. 
Forced on the defensive at the tender age of ten, 
at seventeen he crossed the Alps at the head of an 
army, made a triumphal entrance into Rome, and 
forced Charles of Anjou to a battle. Defeated by 
a cunning stratagem, he was taken prisoner, 
basely betrayed and beheaded at Naples, 1268. 
With him the Royal House of Hohenstauffen 
became extinct. 



CHAPTER III 
The House of Wurtemberg 

"Then take ye heed, aha! take heed 
Ye knaves both North and South. 
For many a man both bold in deed 
And wise^ in peace the land to lead, 
Old Suabia has brought forth!" 

— Schiller. 

The downfall of the HohenstaufTens plunged 
southern Germany into a sad period of rulerless 
civil strife, doing which the House of Wurtem- 
berg steadily increased in power, riches and do- 
main. Its early history is all uncertain. An 



IN SUABIA-LAND 23 



inscription on one of the stones which formed 
a part of the old Castle chapel on the Rothen- 
berg, shows that that part of the ancestral build- 
ing was consecrated in 1083, and hereafter we 
find occasional mention in the chronicle of cer- 
tain Counts of Wurtemberg playing parts in the 
troublous history of those times. Clever states- 
manship, personal courage, thrift and ambition 
seem to have been conspicuous family virtues, 
with the result that, in 1240, we find Count Ul- 
rica with the Thumb already a power in the 
land. 

Eberhard the Noble (1265-1325) was no 
friend of the people, and the cities waged long 
and constant strife against his masterful demands, 
but at his death he left a largely increased fam- 
ily domain. This Count had for his motto: "A 
friend of God, but enemy to all the world." 

Count Eberhard II. (1344-1392) ruled in try- 
ing times. Beside constant civil warfare, he had 
to contend with the disastrous earthquake of 
1348, and in the next year appeared the black 
plague in all its virulence, carrying off great num- 
bers of the inhabitants. In the search for a cause 
for this pestilence arose the merciless persecutions 
of the Jews, who were accused of having poisoned 
the springs, and thousands of this outlawed race 
were seized and burnt in the Wurtemberg cities. 
Another disturbing element was the fanatical 
army of Flagellants, which streamed over the 
country, arousing the wildest emotions and lead- 
ing to great disorders. 

The Suabian Alliance. — During the unsettled 



IN SUABIA-LAND 



conditions of the realm, while popes and emper- 
ors were at strife, and princes fought for domina- 
tion, another power was quietly developing, that 
of the free towns. From the days of the Ro- 
mans until the Eleventh Century there had been 
no question of German communities, but there- 
after this growth had been rapid, and as, by the 
nature of things, town rights must conflict with 
the prerogatives of the princes, feuds were en- 
gendered and a new and lively element introduced 
into the civil conflicts. The beginning of the 
Town Wars was in the year 1349, when many of 
the Suabian cities united in an alliance against 
some of the most hated of the Wurtemberg no- 
bility. From this time on there was continuous 
strife, and in 1376 fourteen cities united to form 
the famous "Schwabische Bund/' by which the im- 
perial free towns united in self-defense against 
the exactions of the nobles. These latter feder- 
ated their forces, and the country was desolated 
by civil strife. 

As many as forty-one cities joined the alliance, 
whose hopes were strengthened by the news of the 
victory of the Swiss over Leopold of Austria. It 
was a critical period for the liberties of Wurtem- 
berg; either the towns or the nobility must be 
victorious and gain supremacy. The decisive bat- 
tle was fought near Doffinger in 1388, and it was 
Count Eberhard II. whose personal efforts and 
prowess turned the tide of affairs and gained an 
overwhelming victory for his side over the Alli- 
ance, which for a time re-established princely au- 
thority. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 25 



Count Eberhard the Mild (1392-1417) suc- 
ceeded; then Eberhard IV. (1417-1419). A 
regency under the Queen-mother, Henrietta, fol- 
lowed, but in 1 44 1 the land was divided be- 
tween the two sons of Eberhard IV. ; one, Lud- 
wig, making Urach his capital, the other, Ulrich, 
holding his court at Stuttgart. 

Eberhard im Bart. — In 1457 began the reign 
of Eberhard V., known in history as Eberhard im 
Bart, who reunited the kingdom and became the 
first Duke of Wurtemberg. This ruler was the 
most beloved of the Wurtemberg princes, and 
around his person and reign gather hosts of 
homely and romantic traditions, since wrought 
into innumerable ballads sung and loved in all 
Suabian households. He is regarded as the 
George Washington of his country, who estab- 
lished it in the ways of peace and orderliness, and 
prepared land and people for the troublous times 
just ahead. Assuming rule at the age of four- 
teen, he made, nine years later, a voyage to Pales- 
tine, and at Jerusalem took the vows of knight- 
hood at the Holy Sepulchre. 

Of this trip he is said to have brought home 
three mementoes, viz., his beard, which some tra- 
ditions make grow to his feet; the palm tree, 
which he hereafter bore on his coat-of-arms, to- 
gether with the motto Attempto (I dare) ; and 
the white thornbush he planted in a churchyard 
near Tubingen. His leading characteristics were, 
his piety, his true care for his people and for their 
education, and his self-sacrificing zeal for their 
benefit. His wife was Barbara Gonzaga of Man- 



26 IN SUABIA-LAND 



tua, a true and beloved helpmeet during all his 
reign. The most important features of his rule 
were the Miinsiger Treaty, establishing the suc- 
cession of the eldest of the ducal family to the 
throne; the founding of the University of Tu- 
bingen in 1479, and his exaltation to an esteemed 
and elevated place in the German realm. His 
valuation of the love of his people and his confi- 
dence in their loyalty are shown by the incident at 
his ducal coronation at Worms in 1495, told in 
Kerner's popular ballad, and given later in these 
pages. Their devotion to him may be gathered 
from the saying said to have been current among 
them: "If the Lord God was not our God then 
our Duke would be our God." "Small in per- 
son, great in heart, the ornament of his royal 
race/' was also said of him. He died in Tu- 
bingen in 1496. 

"He was the Duke whose narrow land 
So broadened underneath his hand, 
That, as his coronet passed down, 
It grew and brightened to a crown. 
Nor has there reigned in Suabia since 
A king so royal as this prince, 
Who, with so small a state, 
Made it so proud and great." 

Duke TJlrich. — After three years of insignifi- 
cant rule by Duke Eberhard II., followed the 
long reign of Duke Ulrich. These were stirring 
times everywhere, and many storms broke over 
Wiirtemberg. It was the century of the Refor- 
mation, and this independent, simple realm was 
from the beginning a stronghold of the new faith. 
Ulrich began his reign gloriously. In less than 
two years he had added more to his domain than 



IN SUABIA-LAND 27 



had any of his predecessors during the past one 
hundred years. Of winning personality, tall of 
stature, strong of limb, with blue eyes, curly blond 
hair and red beard, his was a fiery, unsubdued, 
wilful life until long wanderings and misfor- 
tunes brought wisdom, and the turn of affairs 
caused him to be regarded as the father of his 
people. In 15 14 the war known as that of the 
"Arme Conrad" broke out. This was a brother- 
hood to which neither the wealthy nor the beggar 
were admitted, and sprung out of dissatisfaction 
over the increased taxes and oppression caused by 
Ulrica's extravagance and debts. The members 
wore a white cross on their mantle as a dis- 
tinguishing sign and rose in open revolt. At 
Remsthal a company of the rioters seized the new 
weights — for Ulrich had put a tax on bread, 
flesh and wine — and, throwing them in the Rems, 
shouted: "If the peasants are right, sink to the 
bottom; if the Duke is right, swim on top!" Nat- 
urally the iron sank and depredations followed. 
The result was the Tubingen Treaty, which has 
been called the Wiirtemberg Magna Charta, for 
it obtained for the people many privileges in re- 
turn for the payment of the Duke's debts. 

Ulrich had married Sabina of Bavaria, but 
detested her, and his evil conduct in this regard 
brought about a decision from the Council of the 
realm that he must leave the country for six years, 
which was later amended by permission to re- 
main, but to reign only under an appointed re- 
gency. An assault on the town of Reutlingen 
aroused the ire of the Suabian Alliance, which 



28 IN SUABIA-LAND 



assembled a great force at Ulm, and marched 
against the Duke, who in less than ten weeks lost 
his entire land. Circumstances offered him a sec- 
ond chance, but he listened to evil counsel, again 
oppressed the people, and was again expelled. 

In 1520 the Emperor of Austria seized Wiir- 
temberg in payment of the 220,000 gulden war 
debt and added it to the domains of the House 
of Austria, under whose rule it remained until 
1534. During these years Ulrich was a homeless 
wanderer, hidden away in caves or sojourning 
with foreign princes. This is the period which 
Hauff's novel, Lichtenstein, has so vividly por- 
trayed. In 1524 the formidable "Peasants War" 
broke out, the result of a demand for greater re- 
ligious freedom. When that was denied them, a 
spirit of communism developed and great devas- 
tation of land and destruction of property, as well 
as life, followed. In the war the Duke was pop- 
ularly known as "Bauer Utz." 

Duke Christoph and Later Dukes. — Ulrich 
died in 1550, and his son, Duke Christoph (1550- 
1568) succeeded him. Separated from his mother, 
alienated from his father, Christoph had been 
brought up in the Austrian service. Emperor 
Karl, wishing to make Wiirtemberg a perpetual 
addition to his realm, endeavored to confine the 
young heir in a cloister, but, through the devoted 
services of his teacher, Michael Tifferny, his 
escape was accomplished and he found refuge in 
Bavaria until his accession. The state of the 
country at this period was pitiful, being encum- 
bered with great debts and evil customs, and 



IN SUABIA-LAND 29 



there was little courage among the leaders. 
Christoph proved to be the right Duke. He sup- 
ported the Reformation, established schools and 
fostered education, winning a warm place in 
the hearts of his subjects. 

Of the Dukes which followed there need be 
little recorded. They were mainly insignificant, 
not knowing how to control the distress of the 
times, and in some cases greatly aggravating the 
troubles. The Thirty Year's War devastated 
the land, famine and pestilence were its com- 
panions, and the population was reduced in a few 
years from 340,000 to 48,000 souls. 

The most sorrowful point in Wurternberg's 
history was, however, reached during the reign of 
Duke Eberhard Ludwig (1677-1733) whose 
mistress, the Countess von Gravenitz, and her 
family, plunged the realm into an era of shame 
and extravagance. Under his successor, Duke 
Karl Alexander, the hated Jew, Suss Oppen- 
heimer, wrought great financial ruin, so exasper- 
ating the people that, in 1738, he was hanged in 
Stuttgart in an iron cage suspended from a high 
gallows. These Dukes were all great castle build- 
ers. They lived luxuriously, so that the Court of 
Wurtemberg was the most sumptuous in Europe. 
Most of the beautiful pleasure-houses, theatres, 
parks and public buildings we now see were of 
their creation. 

Duke Karl (1 737-1 793) established the Mili- 
tary Academy of Karlsruhe, and in the latter part 
of his reign greatly fostered the growth of pub- 
lic education and stimulated commerce and art. 



30 IN SUABIA-LAND 



He died in 1793, and, after the short reigns 
of his two brothers, his nephew, Duke Frederick 
II., soon to be King Frederick L, began his rule. 

King Frederick I. — Says an historian : "With 
great strides had history gone forward in this 
last decade, and with it on its irresistible march 
had carried little Wurtemberg." Duke Frederick 
tried hard to remain neutral when war between 
Austria and France broke out, but Napoleon ap- 
peared himself in Ludwigsburg, and declared 
concisely: "It must be with or against me." An 
alliance was concluded. Early in 1806 General 
Morois, Napoleon's adjutant, announced in 
Stuttgart the Peace of Preszburg, and the eleva- 
tion of Wurtemberg to the rank of a kingdom. 
Its soldiers had gained fame, decorations and high 
position, through their great bravery and 
"Schwabenstreiche" in the war, but there was 
discontent and bitterness of heart over their po- 
sition in arms against their brother people. 

In 1809 Wurtemberg was increased to its pres- 
ent dimensions by Napoleon, and had then a pop- 
ulation of 1,400,000. In 18 1 3 the battle of 
Leipzig brought the French Alliance to an end, 
and Wurtemberg made a "Holy Alliance" with 
Austria and Russia in the cause of German free- 
dom. 

King William I. — King Frederick I. died the 
year after the battle of Waterloo (1815), and 
was succeeded by William L (1816-1864), whose 
long reign was a time of peace and prosperity. A 
new constitution was established, the law of suc- 
cession fixed, and rights of conscience, equality of 



IN SUABIA-LAND 31 



legal rights and freedom of the press were 
granted. He was accorded the title of "The 
Just," and his memory is greatly treasured by his 
country. His will contained the following sen- 
tences: "I have always lived for the Unity, In- 
dependence and Glory of Germany; above all 
of my beloved Wurtemberg. Hail to my Father- 
land for all future time!" His two wives, Kath- 
erine of Russia and Pauline of Wurtemberg, did 
much to relieve the poor of the kingdom, and 
many hospitals, schools and other charitable in- 
stitutions owe their endowment to these queens. 

King Karl and William II. — The succeeding 
reign of his brother, King Karl (1 864-1 891), was 
likewise good and happy. He mounted the 
throne with the declaration: "While I hold the 
reins of government, I trust, above all, in the 
help of God who will give me strength to conse- 
crate my life to the welfare of the country." His 
queen, Olga of Russia, also busied herself with 
charities and endeared herself greatly to the peo- 
ple. During these reigns the commerce and indus- 
tries of the realm greatly increased and schools 
and institutions for higher and for industrial edu- 
cation have been firmly and universally estab- 
lished. Since January, 187 1, when King Wil- 
liam of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of Ger- 
many at Versailles, Wurtemberg has been part of 
his realm. 

King Karl was succeeded in October, 1891, 
by King William II., the present ruler of Wur- 
temberg; he was born in 1848 in Stuttgart. 
His first consort was Princess Marie of Waldeck 



32 IN SUABIA-LAND 



Piedmont, and his second is Princess Charlotte 
of Schaumberg Lippe. He is a friend of peace, a 
supporter of church and school, a promoter of art, 
agriculture, trade and commerce, and under him 
the kingdom is making rapid advance in indus- 
trial prosperity. 



CHAPTER IV 
Household Ways and Social Customs 

In the beautiful castle gardens in Stuttgart is 
a life-size marble group, by Paul Muller (1881), 
representing Count Eberhard im Bart asleep, 
with his head on the lap of a young peasant. The 
story, like that of King Alfred the Great and the 
griddle-cakes, is so well known and accepted as 
to be deemed historical. When Count Eberhard 
was created Duke, there sat at the festal board, 
in the Emperor's banqueting hall at Worms, 
many other German princes, who each in turn 
boasted of the superior riches of his respective 
kingdom. The Prince of Saxony claimed moun- 
tains full of precious silver; he of the Rhine 
boasted of golden harvests and rich mines ; while 
Ludwig of Bavaria praised his rich cloisters and 
great cities. 

"Eberhard, surnamed 'The Bearded,' 
Wurtemberg's beloved lord, 
Said, 'My land hath no great cities, 
In its hills no silver hoard. 

"But it holds one hidden treasure, 
That, in deepest forest shade, 
On the lap of any subject, 
Fearless, I can lay my head.' 



IN SUABIA-LAND 33 



"Cried the listening Princes round him, 
Saxonv, Bavaria, Rhine, 
'Bearded Count, thy land is richest, 
Where such precious jewels shine.' " 

That this remains the land's most cherished 
tradition, and Kerner's simple ballad Der Reichste 
Fiirst is still the toast song at all patriotic gather- 
ings, speaks much for the continued simplicity 
and sincerity of Wiirtemberg ideals. A writer 
says that this tale "is the keynote, even to-day, 
of the relation between prince and people in 
Suabia." Universal is the affection felt for the 
royal household, whose characteristics, at least 
for the past century, have been simplicity and 
an earnest devotion to the welfare of their sub- 
jects. The court at Berlin has not the same per- 
sonal interest for them; that is rather reserved 
for show occasions and remains remote from their 
daily lives and thoughts, while the plain, every- 
day going out and in among them of their own 
good king and queen fills their hearts with an 
honest satisfaction and quiet devotion. Prince 
Bismarck was a prime favorite, and many of the 
slippers and sofa cushion covers that went to 
him on his birthdays were the handiwork of de- 
voted admirers among the Suabian dames. 

Agriculture and Living. — Agriculture is the 
chief occupation in Wiirtemberg; its people labor 
hard with but scanty results. This may account 
for the universal simplicity of family and social 
life within its borders. A pious, sentimental 
gemuthlich folk, sincere and lovable in their daily 
incomings and outgoings, devoted to their God, 
their King and their hearths, they are industri- 



IN SUABIA-LAND 



ous, contented and passionately attached to their 
own beloved "Schwabenland." Possessing no 
large commercial cities like those of North Ger- 
many, the smaller towns still remain almost me- 
dieval in appearance and conditions, and there 
are, therefore, many refreshing experiences pos- 
sible for those willing to forego for a time the 
more luxurious conveniences of modern inven- 
tions. 

The general custom of living in small flats 
reduces the extent of the cities' area, and towns of 
considerable population remain cramped almost 
within ancient boundaries. This "flat"-life 
seems simpler and more cooperative than with us. 
While class divisions exist, based upon culture 
and vocation, there is a simple friendliness be- 
tween all classes, and customs which have the 
authority of centuries regulate the courtesies of 
domestic and neighborly intercourse. A cause 
of some embarassment to the stranger is the 
general absence of janitors. One needs to be 
most careful to inquire and note on just which 
floor one's friend lives, or be forced to apply at 
numerous doors of private apartments, with the 
consequent uncertainty of pleasant reception. As 
most of the rooms on each flat open into the one 
hall, with no private vestibule, the awkwardness 
of indiscriminate knocking is easily apparent. 
Each floor keeps its own hall and stairway clean, 
and each in turn assumes the care for a week of 
the front door and pavement. This is called the 
Kehrwoche, and frequently a framed bulletin, 
more or less ornate, often an effort of native 



IN SUABIA-LAND 35 



wit, is hung in the lower hall and designates 
each floor's responsibility. 

Quite customary is it for the different occu- 
pants to share the daily paper, passing this on at a 
certain hour, either above or below as the ar- 
rangement may be. Life is simplified by the 
plainness of the furnishing of the average dwell- 
ing. The floors are generally bare with rugs, 
often of home manufacture, and the furniture 
is substantial but not excessive. The living- 
room, or parlor, contains always the sofa, which 
plays so important a part in social etiquette, some 
tables and straight-backed chairs, and generally 
a piano. Rockers are almost unknown. Dining- 
room and bed-room furniture are strictly to the 
purpose, and Americans would notice the absence 
of lace draperies at the windows. This sim- 
plicity means more leisure for the Hausfrau, and 
she is generally found well-read enough to be 
interesting, can always play a little on some in- 
strument, and often sings or paints, while in sum- 
mer she gives herself up to a genuine enjoyment 
of Nature and "the simple life," the whole family 
cooperating. 

The flat kitchens are tiny affairs and the sim- 
plicity of the cooking is in keeping. Baking is 
seldom done at home, a coarse brown baker's 
bread — often thickly bestrewn with kummel 
seeds — being the universal choice. The pies, pud- 
dings and cakes of America are unknown to Ger- 
man cookery. Pancakes, pot roasts, salads, soup 
and preserves are the staples of domestic economy 
and enjoyment. There are four meals a day. 



36 IN SUABIA-LAND 



Breakfast is early and consists of coffee, bread, 
butter and honey ; dinner is at noon ; vesperbrod 
at half-past three o'clock, and at half-past six 
comes supper, usually a cold meal. 

The general wash-kitchen is frequently in the 
cellar, and here take place the activities of the 
various quarterly washdays of the different fam- 
ilies. Fire is kept up all day on the brick hearth, 
over which is a built-in kettle. The clothes are 
boiled, washed three times with the hands (for 
the Yankee washboard is unknown), laid in water 
over night, then rinsed, blued, wrung out and 
hung up until the next day. As one Waschfrau 
could not get through with a three months' wash 
in one day, several are employed, and the chat- 
ter and clatter make this a lively occasion. 

Many families do the ironing themselves, by 
degrees, and the mangle is a much-used domestic 
article. This quarterly substitute for our weekly 
washday necessitates an extensive wardrobe, and 
it is not only the acquisition of from three to six 
dozen of each article of underwear that must oc- 
cupy the minds and hands of Fraus and Frauleins, 
but a room must be spared by each family in 
which the soiled garments are suspended until the 
day of their purification. This is known as the 
room of the Schwarzewasche, and often several 
are grouped together in the attic. Under these 
circumstances underwear is apt to be plain and 
strong rather than dainty. Each town has its 
public fountains, with arrangements for the wash- 
ing of clothes, and picturesque groups can often 
be seen dipping and rubbing in these public pools. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 37 



The transient visitor can be quite sure that the 
garments confided to the hotel Waschfrau take 
part in some such sociable immersion. 

The "Kranz." — Most of the social life among 
Suabian women is in the form of what we call 
clubs, or reading circles, known there as the 
Kranz, The word means a wreath, and each 
member is supposed to be a bud in this particular 
garland ! Generally formed during school days, 
it often exists until death or removal breaks up 
the circle. The most intelligent and active women 
often belong to several — to an English and a 
French Kranz, meeting once a week and reading 
English or French literature aloud, or to others 
where music, or art, or some kind of social diver- 
sion forms the program. I remember one of three 
old ladies, all over seventy-five, the survivals of 
the Kranz of their girlhood, who still met fort- 
nightly, when infirmities and the weather did not 
interfere, to discuss current events. Think how 
many "mutations of time and mutations of 
thought" have come up for their consideration 
during this half-century! 

The meetings are in the afternoon at the differ- 
ent homes in turn. Arriving at about half-past 
two o'clock, the "buds" arrange themselves, each 
with their sewing, around a large table already 
spread. One reads aloud, and, when it is time 
for the Vesper-meal, coffee is brought in with 
buns or cake, or, most frequently, a Hafen Kranz, 
a large loaf of plain baker's cake baked in a hol- 
low mold, its top sprinkled with nuts and sugar ; 
also some preserves or fruit. I have known an 



38 IN SUABIA-LAND 



orange to be divided into its eight or more natural 
divisions, and these put on a plate to be passed 
around to the guests. As oranges are a luxury 
and incomes small, this, surely, was an exquisite 
instance of simple hospitality. After the coffee, 
work and the book are resumed. 

One striking characteristic of these meetings, to 
me, was, the apron, an article of the wardrobe 
highly valued among German women as combin- 
ing utility and personal adornment. Most re- 
markable of construction were they ! Many were 
made of black alpaca, embroidered or trimmed 
with lace and ribbons, not strong in the bib, nor 
valuable as regards size, but wondrous samples 
of needle work and artistic ingenuity. On sum- 
mer days the Kranz will often make excursions 
and walk to pleasant spots in the environs, where 
it will encircle with its "buds" (always equipped 
with apron and fancy work), one of the out-of- 
door cafe tables sure to be found in every attrac- 
tive spot, and there carry out the accustomed pro- 
gram. 

Suabian Hospitality. — Besides the Kranz, the 
daily Vesper-meal gives opportunities for an easy 
hospitality. Privileged to be admitted into a 
much-esteemed family of high social position, 
though of reduced income, my welcome into the 
best society of the pleasant Suabian town was 
most hearty, and toward the close of my sojourn 
there, when personal acquaintance had been made 
and my ears were opened and my tongue some- 
what loosed, every afternoon found me with an 
engagement zum Kaffee. The program differed 



IN SUABIA-LAND 39 



with the age and circumstances of the hostess. 
Never was it a gay revel, but a succession of pleas- 
ant glimpses into the simple, sincere, home-life, 
not without its dangers to the foreigner of mis- 
takes in native etiquette, and possible consequent 
wounding of the sensibilities of one's hostess. 

There is considerable traditionary etiquette in 
Suabian hospitality, and the recipient of so much 
courtesy naturally desires to show no less good 
breeding in return, if only aware of the proper 
form for it. The language gives them the 
first opportunity. From perference, among 
the older ladies at least, the Suabian dialect is 
used in all familiar conversation, and, when one 
to whom that is an unknown tongue joins the 
company, the others must, to quote their own 
words, "get up on stilts." Not so easy is it to 
manage the sofa and the first cup of coffee. The 
former is the seat of honor, but one must not be 
easily persuaded of one's worthiness for the dis- 
tinction. Social precedence is well understood by 
the natives, and, after much pretended demur, the 
coveted seat is generally occupied by the right 
person, unless the interloping foreigner, wonder- 
ing all the while why the most uncomfortable of 
all places, a high, haircloth sofa should be forced 
upon her, fails to notice the true importance of 
the matter, and lets herself — though the young- 
est in the room, and with never a "von" to her 
name, nor an ancestral coronet on her handker- 
chief — be too easily persuaded into usurpation of 
another's rights. The same courtesy must be 
gone over again with the first cup of coffee. 



40 IN SUABIA-LAND 



"While the napkin is coming, the soup becomes cold, 
While the bonnet is trimming, the face grows old," 

says the old ditty, and sometimes the first cup of 
coffee at a Wurtemberg Vesper-brod is far from 
steaming when finally appropriated. 

A different, but no less real, predicament, is 
that caused by the custom of serving the preserves 
with small silver knives, or two-pronged forks, 
practice alone making this table-habit easy of per- 
formance, though the knife is not meant to be 
put to the mouth. 

While the collation is never elaborate, there 
are dishes more or less familiar and pleasant to the 
foreign palate. The anticipation of sour-cream 
pie, for instance, is not always the joy it is sup- 
posed to be, and when one detests the taste of the 
kummel seed and does not enjoy beer, the simple 
hospitality which offers beer, brown bread and 
radishes to the guest, is not without its discom- 
fort, especially as the only token of appreciation 
accepted as satisfactory is that of a hearty appe- 
tite. To ask for a drink of cold water instead 
of the beer would be most impolite, and less than 
two pieces of sour-cream pie would pronounce the 
hostess's table to be a failure. 

Here arises another dilemma for those of lim- 
ited eating capacity. Etiquette for the hostess is 
to press upon the guest all the viands continually. 
Etiquette for the visitor is never to leave a morsel 
uneaten on the plate. Conversation is, there- 
fore, somewhat hampered by the necessity of 
guarding one's plate from surreptitious, hospitable 
overloading. Of true and abundant hospitality 



IN SUABIA-LAND 41 



there is never any question; their best is always 
yours and is offered with a kindness of heart and 
charming sincerity of manner that must awaken a 
responsive pleasure. 

The conversation interests; of unkind gossip 
there seems no hint, and the talk is guided into 
channels pleasant to the foreign visitor. Few 
have travelled widely, but all know well their 
own land and its historic traditions and land- 
marks. Of other countries ideas are necessarily 
more hazy, although, like the Yankee, all "want 
to know." In bidding farewell to me one dear 
old lady whispered: "Be good to the Indians," 
and there seemed a doubt in the mind of some 
whether my skin was dark enough for a real 
American. 

The men have there vereins, or clubs, and sel- 
dom do the two sexes mingle socially in these 
quiet circles. Perhaps the small scale of the 
dwellings is responsible for this, and perhaps this 
fact increases the pleasure of the summer outing, 
when the families meet constantly at the open-air 
cafes found on every side. Men do not call on 
ladies unless their intentions are serious. Another 
custom, the reverse of ours — and consequently a 
trap for the foreigner — -is that the men must 
speak first on the street. 

Also, a stranger, when she comes into the 
town, must make first calls on the friends of her 
friends, or on those who pay her the compliment 
of inviting her to call; and these will at once 
return the visit. The people are very fond of mu- 
sic and there are many oratorio societies and sing- 



42 IN SUABIA-LAND 



ing classes. Bach's Passion music is given on 
Good Friday in the Stuttgart Stiftskirche. The 
theatres, too, are good and much frequented. 



CHAPTER V 
Religion, Funerals and Weddings. 

To an outside observer piety seems to be a 
prominent characteristic of Wurtemberg. "Griiss 
Gott" is the familiar salutation heard constantly 
on the streets, and the airs of the old hymns float 
through the town several times daily. Family 
worship and grace said before and after meals 
are customary. The latter is most frequently 
said by the children, one of whom arises and 
reverently repeats the quaint form of thanks 
which has served for many generations. The 
kingdom is Protestant, and was a stronghold for 
the Reformation. This is no wonder, after 
such long abuse at the hands of unfriendly Popes, 
whose continued interdict accustomed the people 
to do without their spiritual guidance, and bred a 
sturdy opposition and independence that must 
need think and act for itself. 

Under the constitution the King is the guar- 
dian and director of the Evangelical Church, and 
seventy per cent, of the population is Protestant. 
The almost universal custom of trombonists play- 
ing chorals from the top of a high tower three 
times a day must affect the daily thoughts of the 
population. Sometimes they play from a church 
tower; sometimes from one given up to the resi- 



IN SUABIA-LAND 43 



dence of the town fire-watchman, who walks 
around the four sides of the balcony outside his 
lofty abode every quarter of an hour during the 
night on the alert for fires, calling out, in some 
places, an old-time verse, in others merely the 
customary "all's well." In case of fire the bells 
are rung, and sometimes guns are fired from sur- 
rounding hills. At sunrise the trombonists come 
out and greet the day with several verses of a 
choral. This they do again at noon and at even- 
ing-time. Well do all the people in the town be- 
low know and love these old chorals, and on the 
streets and in the homes the pious words are 
softly hummed, and praise to God "for His good- 
ness to the children of men" rises from many 
hearts. The effects on the stranger of this Chris- 
tian muezzin call is distinctly religious and im- 
pressive. 

The Church. — The Church, too, is intimately 
interwoven with the daily life of the people, not 
that so many services are held — Sunday morn- 
ing attendance fulfills for most that duty — but all 
belong to the congregation, and all have personal 
relations with the staff of pastors who serve over 
the large parishes. These churches receive gov- 
ernment support, and while there are few to a 
city, these are large and have a number of pas- 
tors in charge. The Herr Dekan holds the su- 
perior position; then the Herr Stadt Pfarrer, 
Herr Ober Hilfer, Herr Hilfer, and the Stadt- 
vikar. In the country one man serves and, some- 
times, he even has several contiguous charges. 
Pews are not owned, but all seats are free and all 



44 IN SUABIA-LAND 



classes mingle together. There is no liturgy; the 
service begins by singing a hymn, during which 
the preacher, in black gown, enters and the audi- 
ence rises. After prayer and the reading of the 
Gospel, all sit down for the sermon. After this 
is recited the "Vater XJ riser' (Lord's Prayer), 
and during this the church bell is tolled, so that 
all kept at home may know and participate; a 
custom, this, especially dear to the sick and aged. 
Prospective marriages are then called and the 
couples prayed for. No collection is taken, but 
outside the church door is placed a box, in which 
all drop something, the contents going to some 
outside benevolence previously noticed from the 
pulpit. At the installation of a new pastor he 
must read his Lebenlauf, i. e., relate all the in- 
cidents of his past life, and tell all his family his- 
tory and present circumstances; introduce him- 
self and family, as it were, to his new parish- 
ioners. Sunday School is held in the afternoon in 
the parish house. 

The observance of the Sabbath in Wiirtemberg 
is quite different from that in the Roman Cath- 
olic kingdoms, yet is the day not kept as in 
England, for example. In the morning it is the 
general custom to attend church and frequently 
is the long sermon, with its old time divisions, 
reaching often to the seventhlies, gone over and 
discussed at the noonday meal. 

After this the day is given over by most to 
general relaxation. The old ladies often take up 
their knitting, social visits are made and families 
unite for Vesperbrod. In pleasant weather ex- 



IN SUABIA-LAND 45 



cursions are made to the country, the parks, or the 
environs, where the cafe tables keep filled with 
happy, orderly crowds. In the country the men 
go to the village inn, where, seated at long bare 
tables, they sing choruses between their glasses 
of beer. All is quiet and decorous, and Sun- 
day a much prized holiday. 

Funerals. — Funerals have a most general ob- 
servance. Owing to the small rooms, which can 
accommodate so few of the many who wish to 
pay their last respects to the dead, the main ser- 
vice is held at the churchyard, the friends meeting 
at the house and forming a procession, which fol- 
lows the body on foot to the grave. Sometimes, 
after the coffin is committed to the grave, the con- 
course goes to the church for a sermon. During 
the whole time that the slow procession is walk- 
ing from the house to the churchyard the church 
bell tolls, or chorals are played from the tower. 
During the dark and dreary days of winter, when 
deaths are most frequent, this incessant, slow toll- 
ing of the bell, telling its tale of the sad proces- 
sional, is far from cheerful. One who is not ac- 
customed to it is apt to resent so much demand 
on one's sympathies and the constant turning of 
one's thoughts into sorrowful channels. In the 
country, where ancient superstition longer pre- 
vails, there are many curious funeral customs. 

Weddings. — Most interesting of all are the 
wedding customs, in which the national senti- 
mentality can find fullest expression. An en- 
gagement is almost as binding as a marriage, and 
is seldom broken. Announcement cards are sent 



4 6 IN SUABIA-LAND 



out by the parents of the contracting parties, or 
the betrothal is formally published in the news- 
papers. From the moment of the engagement 
until the wedding ceremony is performed, the 
girl is a "bride" and almost delirious is the ex- 
citement and adoration she now excites among her 
friends. 

There are many more girls than men in the 
towns, such numbers of the sterner sex being in 
the enlisted service of their country, and to be 
verlobt is a rare, and, accordingly, highly prized, 
circumstance, which entitles the favored one to 
unlimited congratulations and good-natured 
envy. The happy couple are expected to be con- 
spicuously sentimental, and seldom are those ex- 
pectations disappointed. 

Next to being one's self a bride, the most desir- 
able event in life in South Germany is to be in- 
vited to participate at a wedding. The invita- 
tions are never very general and the favored 
guests usually know long in advance of their pros- 
pective inclusion in the joyous party, and can thus 
widely inform their friends thereof, an essential 
preparatory for their own share in the pleasures of 
the hour. The ceremony is performed in church 
and generally in the late morning. Sometimes 
the procession rides, often it walks, a pretty pic- 
ture in the narrow, quaint old streets, too cus- 
tomary to excite disturbance. The bride is not 
always in white dress, but wears, without fail, 
the long veil and orange blossoms, while brides- 
maids are fondest of pink and blue. The guests 
w^ear their simple best, natural flowers often in 



IN SUABIA-LAND 47 



their hair, and carry stiff bouquets encircled with 
lace paper. 

The service is no short affair; marriage is evi- 
dently too solemn an event to be so lightly ac- 
complished. Several hymns are sung, prayer 
made, and a discourse, called the Rede, preached 
to, or at, the happy couple. The church presents 
a Bible as a wedding-gift, and all guests drop 
money into a box placed prominently on a chair 
in the aisle, the contents to be given to some be- 
nevolent object. The wedding dinner is gener- 
ally eaten at a hotel or country inn, and is not 
formal. 

Wedding presents have all been sent before- 
hand to the home of the bride ; now it is the turn 
of her guests. During the morning their friends, 
long made aware of the anticipated occasion, have 
sent in to the hotel packages individually ad- 
dressed. After the repast is over, the toasts 
drunken, the much decorated wedding cake cut 
and its ring acquired, the waiters bring these 
packages into the room in large baskets and dis- 
tribute them according to the addresses, each 
guest's portion being called his or her Strauschen, 
or bouquet. These are now opened. Some con- 
tain handsome gifts, others only kindly jokes; 
most of them are simple tokens of friendship. Al- 
most all are accompanied by original verses, which 
are read aloud and add much to the enjoyment 
of the company. Then may follow an entertain- 
ment gotten up by the bridesmaids and grooms- 
men, on whom falls the responsibility of this part 
of the festivity, and who have been for weeks 



48 IN SUABIA-LAND 



planning and rehearsing. This is often an orig- 
inal play based on some incidents in the career of 
one or the other of the bridal pair, or an allegory, 
of which the Germans are exceedingly fond. The 
guests remain long after the departure of the 
newly-wedded couple, now no longer "bride" and 
"groom," and the day's dissipation is usually con- 
cluded by a dance. 

CHAPTER VI 
Holidays and Festivals 

The unity of family life is a noticeable Suabian 
characteristic. The aged are treated with a 
reverence and attention that are very tender, 
and they in turn enter with hearty sympathy into 
the sports of the young. Grandfather and grand- 
child hop around to the strains of their beloved 
waltz in the parlors of country inns, or at sum- 
mer resorts, absolutely unconscious of anything 
but their own enjoyment. Birthdays and anni- 
versaries are pleasant events, celebrated by fam- 
ily reunions when the children recite original 
verse and act simple charades for the entertain- 
ment of their elders, while all unite in playing 
active games and dancing. During the day not 
only do relatives and friends bring presents, for 
which a table hung with garlands has been ar- 
ranged, but acquaintances made a point of calling 
to offer congratulations. 

Christmas and Easter. — Christmas is, of 
course, the great festival of the year. In Wiir- 



IN SUABIA-LAND 49 



temberg it is preeminently a religious festival, 
celebrated, however, in the home. All the joy 
and the good things come from the " Christ-kind, " 
and when the families gather under the lighted 
Tannenbaumj{fir tree), whose evergreen branches 
stretch over the Putz, and the Christmas gifts are 
laid below, they listen to the recital from some 
member of the household — preferably one of the 
children — of the story of Christ's birth in a 
manger and the joy of the shepherds over the 
angelic message. Then Christmas hymns are 
sung: "O Du frohliche! O Du selige! Gnade 
bringt die Weihnachtszeit" or Luther's hymn, 
"Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her/' etc. In 
some simple country districts the Christ-child 
himself is sometimes represented, but generally, 
when fun and frolic call for a visible embodi- 
ment of the Christmas joy, it is "Prinz Ruprecht" 
who appears as the children's friend and benefac- 
tor. Cooking and baking have absorbed the pre- 
vious days; a goose, if possible, graces the festal 
board, and little cakes, Lebkuchen and Springerle, 
are sent around to neighbors and given gener- 
ously to children. 

The Christmas festival embraces three days. 
The 25th of December is the W eihnachtsf est ; the 
26th its first, and the 27th its second, holiday. 
New Year's day has no special observance, but 
the sixth of January is the Erscheinungsfest 
(Epiphany), and mummers, dressed up as "Wise 
Men," go about singing and receiving gifts. 

Easter, besides its religious significance and ob- 
servances, is the festival of hare, to whom is 



5o IN SUABIA-LAND 



attributed all the kindly and homely offices which 
bring joy to the children and their sympathizing 
elders. His ginger-bread counterfeit dominates 
in all the shop windows, and is likewise omni- 
present in china, wool, metal and paper repre- 
sentations. On Easter morning children throng 
the parks and retired places, searching for the 
small packages of eggs and bon-bons which the 
kindly disposed may have hidden under bushes, 
or behind trees, in the name of the friendly hare. 
"Have you seen the rabbit anywhere?" greeted 
me from many an excited group as I came down 
a wooded hillside, after fulfilling my part of the 
surprise program, and when I said, truthfully, 
"Yes, up there it went," the rush upward was 
immediate. Even in lands of their adoption the 
Suabians observe this custom of the rabbit hunt. 

Other Holidays. — There are many other holi- 
days and religious and patriotic memorials. In 
summer these are given up to out-of-town excur- 
sions and jollifications. Especial occasions of 
family reunion are the KirchweihfestSj the annual 
celebrations of the anniversary of the consecration 
of the different churches. Those are held on Sun- 
day and are merry affairs, bringing together the 
scattered branches of families who return to hon- 
or the church-home of their childhood. The great 
national festival is the Cannstatt Volksfest, held 
on the 27th of September, King William L's 
birthday. Great crowds gather at this time, and 
games, races and various shows occupy several 
days. The different trades give representations 
and rival each other in the wit and display of 



IN SUABIA-LAND 51 



their productions. This Volksfest has its echoes 
wherever outside the Fatherland Suabians have 
made their home. 

Village Festivals. — Each village of any con- 
sequence is entitled to hold a yearly fair, on a set 
date, and is then called a Marktfleck, One 
large enough to have a church with its own pas- 
tor is a Pfarrdorf, and the name of the village, 
and the two designations, Marktfleck and Pfarr- 
dorf, with the number of the regiments re- 
cruited from it, are all on the local signboards. 
Larger towns have several fair days in the year, 
and at those times the streets are full of wooden 
booths, or tents, from which country people sell 
all manner of wares, made by themselves or 
procured on commission from the stores, and itin- 
erant shows and fakirs amuse the crowds gath- 
ered for the Jahrmarkt. Each town and village, 
too, has its May festival, when sports, races and 
competitions for the schoolchildren are held on 
the common, and a procession and prize-giving 
are included in the program. These are pleasant 
occasions for the visiting stranger ; so many peas- 
ant costumes and unusual sights and sounds can 
be seen and heard, and the jollity is so general 
and genuine as to be contagious. 

Costumes of the Peoples. — The quaint, local 
costumes of former times are not often to be seen 
on the streets, except in certain districts. The av- 
erage peasant woman wears a cotton frock and a 
three-cornered handkerchief, or nothing at all, 
on her head. In Betzingen a beautiful local cos- 
tume can be seen. The men wear short jackets, 



52 IN SUABIA-LAND 



called Wamms, and long, tight trousers, or a coat 
with long tails, reaching nearly to the ground, 
over a bright red vest, buttoned by a close row of 
small silver buttons. Sometimes coat and trous- 
ers are black, but in summer the youths wear 
them of white, homespun linen and a small, round 
white cap is worn jauntily on the head. The 
women's caps are of peculiar shape, the rim gen- 
erally of a fine purple and black check, and the 
inside of pleated black silk, with long black rib- 
bons down the back. Young and old wear their 
hair in long braids. The skirts are black, short 
and full, edged with gold braid, black velvet, or 
bright colored ribbon. The bodice is laced with 
gold braid and a gay-colored, short, top jacket is 
worn over full white sleeves. Rows of beads and 
bands of black velvet ribbon are worn around the 
neck. Low shoes and open-work, white stock- 
ings complete the costume. 

Another dress seen in the Black Forest has a 
very bright, colored apron over a short skirt, a 
waist with curiously shirred and stuffed sleeves, 
and a little black cap, decorated with gold em- 
broidery and four long moire ribbon streamers. 
Near Allerheiligen the costume is a full short 
plisse skirt, full white sleeves and short bodice, 
with real tatting lace pleated in the neck, and a 
large white straw hat decorated with three red 
rosettes. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 53 



CHAPTER VII 

Some General Customs 

One of the constant and entertaining diver- 
sions of Wurtemberg to the visitor is the local 
newspaper. This is highly prized and univer- 
sally read, and is a popular means of communi- 
cating every kind of personal item that one may 
desire to share with a sympathetic public. Hans 
inserts a naive notice of his betrothal to Gretchen. 
Frau Julie R., Wittwe (widow), and her five 
sorrowing children, publish under their signa- 
ture an announcement, heavily framed in black 
lines, of the demise of their lamented husband 
and father, not sparing any particulars of his 
death and prospective burial, and often adding 
where and how his business, now interrupted, 
will in the future be carried on. Katrina cor- 
dially thanks her friends for sending her bouquets 
on some occasion, or helping her through a mov- 
ing, etc. In villages without a daily newspaper 
there is the town crier, who daily breaks the 
monotony of the hours by his loud announce- 
ment, first ringing his big bell to secure an audi- 
ence of any official or local news that has been 
given him to cry. Sometimes it is an enactment 
of the village fathers, sometimes a piece of news 
of national interest, again it may be a lost or 
found proclamation; while often it is an an- 
nouncement that some one in the neighborhood 
has just killed a calf, portions of which are now 
for sale! 

Education is well cared for in Wurtemberg. 



54 IN SUABIA-LAND 



A school must be provided for every thirty fam- 
ilies and attendance is compulsory. French and 
English are important parts of the curriculum, 
and the long list of Latin words brought home 
for commitment each night by a palefaced boy 
of nine aroused my constant sympathy. The 
children study hard and the hours seem long. 
There was an unnatural demureness about some 
of these children. A frequent sight in my daily 
walks was that of a long row of little girls stand- 
ing with their backs to a wall knitting, while at 
the same time they were watching younger 
brothers and sisters at play around them. 

The Soldiers. — Soldiers are not seen in great 
numbers; one grows familiar with the uniforms, 
but is not continually under the shadow of the 
army. In the spring, when examinations for ser- 
vice in the army and navy are held, the country 
is flooded with the young Recruten, who are 
privileged to go about for several weeks before 
the time in gangs and allowed to make all the 
noise they wish. These wander from tavern to 
tavern, generally by cross-cuts through woods 
and across hills, whistling or singing choruses, 
bright-colored paper rosettes and streamers float- 
ing from their hats. At first there seemed some- 
thing riotous in the tramping throng, but more 
frequent contact revealed the rural awkwardness 
and homesickness behind the apparent bravado; 
while the songs, which a stranger might imagine 
to express only the bloodthirstiness of coming 
warfare, proved to be the ballads of Uhland, even 
one so tender and touching as "The Landlady's 



IN SUABIA-LAND 55 



Daughter," HaufT, in his novel of Lichtenstein, 
alludes to these choruses and quotes the follow- 
ing as one often heard on the banks of the Neck- 
ar : 

"Scarcely thought 
To its end, lo! joy was brought! 
Yesterday on proud steeds hieing; 
Shot to-day the heart through; lying 
In to-morrow's chilling grave. 

"But yet say, 
'All earth's transports, what are they? 
Pride ye on your beauty's blowing? 
Cheeks with milk and purple glowing?' 
See, the roses wither all! 

"Therefore still 
March I forth as God shall will. 
Hear I then the trumpets calling, 
Comes the moment of my falling, 
I will die a soldier brave." 

The singers were young Suabians about to en- 
ter the service of their beloved Fatherland. 

Titles of Classes. — Apart from the nobility 
there is a decided class distinction, its full intri- 
cacies presenting many difficulties to an outsider, 
who is appalled by the extreme importance of 
the etiquette of titles. 

Mdme. de Stael says that all over Germany 
a wife insists upon taking the title of her hus- 
band with a feminine termination. Thus to the 
ordinary difficulties of the German language must 
be added, even in familiar conversation, the ne- 
cessity of addressing one's new acquaintances as 
Frau Stadt Pfarrer A., Frau Ober Consistorial 
Rath B., etc. The substitution of Gnadige 
Frau (Gracious Lady), or Hochgeborener 
Herr (High Born Sir), is a way out of the se- 
rious difficulty that here besets the foreigner, but 



56 IN SUABIA-LAND 



one that does not come easy to a democratic 
American. This last mode of address has a posi- 
tive, comparative and superlative form. W ohl- 
geboren will do for a merchant, Hochgebor- 
ener for one of the lesser nobility, and Hoch- 
wohlgeborener for one of the higher. This is 
the proper form of address in correspondence, 
and opens up a way for many astute flatteries 
from tradesmen, etc. The prefix "von" indi- 
cates aristocracy of birth, and those entitled to it 
may rightfully have a coronet embroidered on 
their handkerchiefs. 

The seriousness of this question of titles was 
borne in upon me one day when, ^fter a railway 
journey to find a certain official who could 
give me some important desired information, 
I was prevented from applying to him by my 
accompanying Fraulein, because she heard he had 
recently been promoted, but could not ascer- 
tain his proper present title. To insult him by 
the old one was impossible, and we journeyed 
home again without the desired information. 

Appearance of the Country. — Country life in 
Wiirtemberg differs greatly from that in most 
other lands, owing, probably, to the fact that 
there are so few large country estates. The land 
is divided into many small farms or holdings, in- 
stead of being in the possession of large land 
owners, and dirty villages with communal farms 
are to. be seen instead of large, well-kept estates 
and their dependent tenantry. Women do heavy 
work in the field, and there can but be dirt and 
discomfort in the homes when the mother must 



IN SUABIA-LAND 57 



spend her day in hard manual labor outside. The 
only refuge for the men is the village inn, never 
an attractive place from an aesthetic point of 
view, and one can understand the reason for 
Mdme. de Stael's commentary that "stories, beer 
and smoke of tobacco surround all the common 
people of Germany with a thick atmosphere which 
they are never inclined to escape." 

The eye is struck by the absence of horses and 
cattle in the country landscape. Oxen are a fre- 
quent substitute for the former in the field ser- 
vice, and dogs pull many of the carts, while 
women carry heavy loads on their heads or push 
small handcarts. I once saw six small boys 
yoked together pulling a large hay wagon. The 
towns are too cramped to need carriages, and life 
too simple to afford them. Milkmen are all milk- 
women, and their bright tin cans are carried in 
handcarts or pulled by dogs. The thousand hills 
are constantly around one in this rolling country, 
but no cattle can be seen on them. These are 
fed in their stalls on a mixed diet, not always to 
be surmised, supplemented by grass which the 
women gather and carry on their heads ofttimes a 
weary way. It would not be possible to turn cat- 
tle out in this fenceless land, where so much 
"richness" in the way of beets, beans and cab- 
bages covers the soil. 

Grass is at a premium and therefore few close- 
cut lawns are to be seen, thrifty owners prefer- 
ring a small income from the renting of their 
several longer cuttings. This accounts for the 
usual untidiness, the roadside, churchyard and 



58 IN SUABIA-LAND 



all stray corners being left for the general glean- 
ing for the cattle. The result of this method is 
poor milk and butter, and much deprivation for 
the poor cattle, who never chew their cud in 
green meadows or wade in quiet waters. Howitt 
says, sympathetically: "And when she dies, too, 
miserable cow, she has not even the satisfaction 
of dying fat!" Geese are better treated; they can 
be kept in a small inclosure with only one goose- 
herd to lead them to and fro mornings and even- 
ings — and goose livers are favorite delicacies. 

Farms and Fruit. — Farm implements, as well 
as the wagons, are exceedingly simple, and there 
has, apparently, been but little evolution in 
their form and construction, while the roads 
are generally bad. There seems to be a general 
regard for law. The regulation that after the 
twenty-third of April no one can walk over the 
meadows or grass lands, seems universally re- 
spected, and the unfenced, communal, vegetable 
gardens, which would seem to give such oppor- 
tunity for constant, if petty, dishonesty and 
thieving, do not prove occasions of much strife. 

Fruit trees frequently are used as shade trees 
along the highways, and the fertile valley land is 
one great orchard — apple, pear and cherry — the 
very abundance being, doubtless, sufficient safe- 
guard for the fruit. There are many ingenious 
ways of combining fruit cultivation with garden 
decoration. Apricots and pears are trained up a 
sheltering wall, or cut down to straight sticks and 
placed like a dado around the house-walls. Ap- 
ple trees are sometimes cut down to make a low 



IN SUABIA-LAND 59 



hedge; the trunks, planted at measured dis- 
tances, are divided into two branches at about a 
foot's height from the ground, and these branches 
are trained along a wire to right and left until 
each meets the next branch. In the towns there 
are few gardens; space does not permit; but the 
suburbs are bright with flowers around the little 
homes, and the larger garden of a manor house is 
sure to be a delight to any beholder. These houses 
are most charming to visit, the refinement of cul- 
ture being added to the universal grace of a 
simple hospitality. 

Country Cafes. — Instead of the few landed 
estates, with their stately homes and parks as in 
other lands, Wurtemberg's hills and dales lay 
open to the public and its people, and all visitors 
find during the out-of-door season most friendly 
welcome at the numerous cafes which fairly cover 
the land. Not a country inn but has its orchard 
and garden, the latter set with tables, and re- 
freshment can be procured and is pleasantly served 
at most trifling cost. In many places there is a 
Tanzboden, or dancing platform, where families 
enjoy waltzing or play games with the children, 
but wherever the view is fine, or the trees excep- 
tionally large, or any other possible natural at- 
traction can make any point allure, there can be 
found some seats and tables, and beer or hot 
drinks, with cake, etc., can be procured at any 
hour. The very existence of the opportunity 
proves the demand and the Suabian love for Na- 
ture is constantly in evidence by the popularity 
of these country retreats. 



6o IN SUABIA-LAND 



The Jdger, or forester, is a prominent char- 
acter in all the folk lore, as much so as the 
knight, for is he not the guardian of the forest 
and all its treasures? In present times he has 
lost much of the old-time mystery and popularity 
through closer contact and increase in numbers, 
but is still a picturesque figure in his green uni- 
form with jaunty trimmings. All woods are 
open to the public, and the system of forestry does 
not interfere with their natural growth and 
beauty, while it increases the accessibility of their 
charms. 

The Vineyards. — Undoubtedly the most strik- 
ing feature in the great Rhine basin, seventy per 
cent, of which is in Wurtemberg, is the vineyard. 
Vine culture is said not to be profitable; if so 
the patience and endurance of the many toilers 
seem the more remarkable, for enormous labor is 
required before the red juice runs from the 
wine-press. The vineyards are mostly small and 
climb up the sunny slopes of the hills, many of 
them veritable hanging gardens, requiring sus- 
taining walls and reached by flights of steep stone 
steps, up which all needed material and imple- 
ments must be carried by hand, or on the head. 
In February, or March, the work begins, and 
men, looking from below like huge black beetles, 
can be seen bent over at work on the dry vine 
stocks. There is a disappointment in the ap- 
pearance of "vineclad hills," for the result of so 
much cutting and pruning is that the soil shows 
more than the vines. "When," says Ugo Bassi — 



IN SUABIA-LAND 61 



"The grace of the green vine makes all the land 
Lovely in Spring time; . . . 
Till the fair shoots begin to wind and wave 
In the blue air." 

the husbandman comes on 

"With pruning hooks and shears, 
And strips it bare of all its innocent pride 
And wandering garlands, and cuts deep and sure." 

Further south there are more artistic ways of 
training these vines, on hop poles or over arbors, 
but here they are simply planted at regular dis- 
tances, kept short and thick, and treated only to 
bear grapes. 

"The bleeding limbs are hardened into wood; 
The thinned-out branches ripen into fruit, 
More full and precious, to the purple prime." 

At the time of the vintage there is general re- 
joicing. Owners of the several vineyards invite 
their friends, who at least make a pretence at 
helping cut off the grapes. There is much gaiety 
and merriment at these vintage festivals, and after 
dark the vineyard is often illuminated and fire- 
works are set off. Most, made from pears, is a 
drink used by many because of its cheapness. It 
is, however, very sour. 

One of the most successful government enter- 
prizes has been the bringing of pure water from 
the Alp, supplying thus one hundred and nine 
communities. This is a great boon and water is 
found most useful for many purposes, but it can- 
not be expected to supplant beer and wine as the 
preferred drink of the German people. 



62 IN SUABIA-LAND 



CHAPTER VIII 
The Neckar Valley 

The time of all times for a visitor's sojourn 
in Wiirtemberg is in the spring, for then this 
land of orchard, meadow and forest is in its 
fullest glory. The Neckar Valley is all abloom; 
great masses of white covering the levels, framed 
by the bright green of the young beech leaves of 
the forests upon the heights. Below the trees the 
soft grass is purple with fragrant violets, blue 
with forget-me-nots and icylla, yellow with prim- 
roses and buttercups, white with anemones and 
daisies. The wisteria twines its lavender blos- 
soms along the roadside; perrwinkle, wild hya- 
cinths, pinks and hosts of other flowers are in 
bright bloom, while in the woods the deli- 
cate lilies of the valley grow profusely. Later 
come the gay poppies and cornflowers in the field. 
Never anywhere could there be more profusion 
or variety ; not hidden away for those who know 
their haunts, but brightening every spot outside of 
the town walls, free to all who will gather and 
enjoy them; a May festival of flowers, called out 
by the bright spring sun from this fertile soil, to 
greet and beautify the world. No wonder every- 
one goes a-Maying; who could help it? 

The Eothenberg. — A favorite excursion dur- 
ing blossom-time is up the Rothenberg, on the top 
of which formerly stood the ancestral castle of the 
Counts of Wiirtemberg, but now crowned by the 
Mausoleum of King William I. and his first 
Queen Katherine, a Russian princess. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 63 



"Aloft where the Suabian hilltops are serried, 
The Suabians carried their king to be buried. 
His tomb on the Rothenberg high 
Is capped by the clouds of the sky. 

"Not first for himself did he fashion and build it, 
The bride of his youth was the tenant who filled it. 
Ere he in his age when he died 
Was carried and laid by her side. 

"He built it for love, yet it blazons his glory, 
For all who behold it, or hear of the story, 
Give honor, as honor is due, 
To love and a lover so true." 

The chapel is of Grecian architecture and with- 
in are the four Evangelists, by Dannecker. One 
cannot, however, linger long within the vault 
when without the beauty of the springtime is so 
alluring. Uhlbach, just below, is noted for its 
cherries, now in the stage to delight the eye 
rather than the palate, and the steep little hill- 
top is completely surrounded by a billowy white 
mass of blossoms. 

My pilgrimage was made on May seventh, As- 
cension Day, and because we would not leave 
the dear old grandmother behind we went 
by carriage. The road is steep and narrow, 
mounting between stone walls, and on this holi- 
day it w r as a stream of ascending and descending 
pilgrims. Our heavy cab, the only available ve- 
hicle, bumped heavily over the huge stones and 
completely filled the way, causing pedestrians to 
rush up the narrow stairways leading to the 
vineyards on either side, or to scramble up the 
straight stone walls. It was a fearful ascent, 
tempered by the beauty of the view and the 
amusing antics of the crowd. 

Esslingen. — The old town of Esslingen, which 



64 IN SUABIA-LAND 



has played always an important part in Suabian 
history, is most beautiful of situation. It was one 
of the free imperial towns founded by Emperor 
Frederick II., and. the lion of Hohenstauffen is 
still to be seen carved on one of the old gates of 
the city wall, portions of which are yet standing. 
Some interesting medieval buildings remain — the 
town hall and several churches, with high stone 
towers. The most beautiful of these is the 
Frauenkirche, erected 1406- 15 22, and recently 
restored, with a fine perforated spire. 

Esslingen in 1900 had over 27,000 inhabitants, 
but its life seems exceedingly quiet and con- 
tracted in comparison with that of an American 
town of the same size. The streets are nar- 
row, crooked and ill-paved ; the buildings unpre- 
tentious and crowded. Scarcely a horse is to be 
seen, nor equipages or private carriages. There 
are no distances to cover ; women, dogs and small 
boys push the carts and people walk. There are 
no large stores nor any window displays; only 
little shops, and dress and its manifold absorp- 
tions seem to play, consequently, a smaller 
part in the daily thought of the population, al- 
ways soberly attired and paying more attention to 
comfort than to display. There is little walking 
on the streets. One seldom meets an acquaint- 
ance, and wonders how the people occupy them- 
selves during the long months when the coun- 
try outside is impracticable for excursions. An 
island in the Neckar is laid out as a promenade, 
but is never crowded. 

Not far from the town is the royal domain of 



IN SUABIA-LAND 65 



Weil, where the King's studs are kept, and the 
royal cattle-farm and tree nurseries are to be 
seen, and annual races are held. 

Charming excursions can be made to the many 
royal villas in the vicinity — to the Rosenstein, 
built in the Roman style, with colonnades, and 
filled with paintings ; to the Wilhelma, erected by 
King William I. in the Moorish style and sump- 
tuously fitted up with beautiful gardens; or to 
the Solitude, the first seat of the Karlschule, 
where a deer park and wheycure establishment are 
chief present attractions. Cannstatt, half way 
between Esslingen and Stuttgart, has good min- 
eral springs, and is well provided with all the 
comforts and attractions of a popular health re- 
sort. 

Stuttgart, the Capital. — Stuttgart is encircled 
with gardens and has much to interest the visitor. 
On the Schlossplatz are the New and the Old 
Palaces, the latter a most picturesque building, 
with round towers and arcades, and, in the court, 
is an equestrian statue of Count Eberhard im 
Bart. In the Schillerplatz near by is a fine figure 
of Schiller, by Thorwaldsen. Here, too, is the 
Stiftskirche, which contains a number of monu- 
ments and royal tombs. Of particular interest 
are the eleven stone figures of the Counts of 
Wurtemberg, dating from the close of the Six- 
teenth Century. Up in its church tower hangs 
"The silver bell of Stuttgart," accounted one 
of the most precious heir looms of the city. Each 
night during five hundred years, at nine and again 
at twelve o'clock, has it been rung with rapid, 



66 IN SUABIA-LAND 



clamorous stroke, not tolled. The bell ringer is 
paid from a perpetual fund, of which there is no 
account in the city's records. Popular legend has, 
therefore, established its version, according to 
which the silver bell rings to quiet the soul of the 
remorseful Ulrica, who, on the eve before Palm 
Sunday in 1347, secretly murdered her mother, 
about to become the bride of the girl's own lover. 
Distracted by regret she pined away, after having 
spent all her property in the purchase of this bell, 
and the perpetual fund which keeps it sounding 
through the centuries. 

The collection of Wiirtemberg antiquities in 
the the royal Library contains articles found on 
the heathen tombs, besides many other curiosities 
of later date. The Museum of Art has an inter- 
esting collection of paintings and plaster casts. 
The city is admirably laid out and has a number 
of attractive parks and a beautiful country club — 
the Silberberg. 

The hills above the city command most exten- 
sive views. An excursion by a little railway up 
the Hasenberg is well worth while, and the Jager- 
haus and Uhlandshohe, (where is shown the poet's 
lime tree) are both beautiful spots, where one can 
sit amid attractive surroundings and enjoy the 
wonderful panorama spread out beneath. From 
the Jagerhaus can be seen the entire chain of 
the Suabian Alb, with the peaks of Hohenstauffen, 
Rechborg, Hohenneuffen, the Achalm and Ho- 
henzollern. Many charming places are within 
easy distance by rail from Stuttgart. 

The palace at Ludwigsburg, with its park and 



IN SUABIA-LAND 67 



beautiful pleasure house, "Monrepos," well re- 
pays a visit. This was founded at the beginning 
of the Eighteenth Century by Duke Eberhard 
Ludwig, and has since been a favorite royal resi- 
dence. The court resided here during the days 
of the infamous Countess of Gravenitz. 

Tubingen. — A nearer excursion is to Tubin- 
gen, sixteen to twenty miles from Stuttgart, ac- 
cording to whatever guide-book you believe. This 
old town crowns a hill on the banks of the Neckar 
and the edge of the Black Forest, and has a truly 
beautiful natural environment. Its old portion 
is most quaint, with steep, narrow streets, but the 
quarter about the New University is handsome 
and pleasant. On a height above the city is the 
old ducal castle of Hohentiibingen, an interest- 
ing building of the Renaissance period, built by 
Duke Ulrich in 1535. The exterior, with its beau- 
tiful portal and fine view from its bastion, are 
sufficient attractions, but the big cask and the tor- 
ture chambers in the cellar will be found to be of 
paramount value in the mind of the custodian. 
The quaint old Stiftskirche contains some fine 
glass and interesting stone-carved monuments of 
some of Wurtemberg's princes. The University, 
which has given fame to this quiet town, was 
founded in 1477 by Count Eberhard im Bart, "to 
the honor of God, for the encouragement, aid 
and strengthening of all Christendom, and the 
praise of the dukedom of Wurtemberg; to ac- 
quire honor, and advantage, and in the good 
intention of opening up a well of life that from 
all the evils of the world consoling and healing 



68 IN SUABIA-LAND 



wisdom may perennially flow to the extinguish- 
ing of the destructive fires of human ignorance 
and superstition; for pure, chaste hearts well 
pleasing to God are attained in no other way so 
easily and quickly as through wise instruction." 

The University was established with fourteen 
professorships, and in the first year had three hun- 
dred and seventy-five students. Among its earlier 
instructors were the famous humanist, Johann 
Reuchlin, and Melancthon. The fact that at that 
time one-half of the counselors of the realm at 
Stuttgart could neither read nor write, and that 
no school for higher education existed in Wiir- 
temberg, proves the need of the University's 
founding. Since then the faculties have been in- 
creased to seven, and in 1902 there were over 
fifteen thousand students in attendance. The 
founder and chief light of the advanced school 
of theological criticism, known as the Tubingen 
School, was Frederick Christian Baur, and its in- 
fluence on the development of religious thought, 
though by many considered destructive, has been 
very great. The four hundredth anniversary of 
the University was celebrated with great pomp in 
August, 1877. This program included a historical 
play, depicting the leading features of the life of 
the University through the successive centuries, 
and a royal Klostesfestj given by the King as 
host to the students and faculties at beautiful 
Bebenhausen. 

It was near Tubingen (Kirchentellinsfurt) 
that Count Eberhard planted the white thorn 
brought by him from the Holy Land. This grew 



IN SUABIA-LAND 69 



to be a tree under whose shadow, as sing the chil- 
dren of the Wurtemberg schools, often sat the 
Duke in his old age dreaming of "the old times 
and the distant land." Unfortunately it has been 
destroyed by fire. Three miles from Tubingen 
is the ancient Cistercian Monastery of Beben- 
hausen, founded in 1185, a Gothic structure of 
exceeding beauty and interest. Restored by King 
Karl to its old-time state, it has since been used 
as a royal hunting seat, and is a favorite sojourn- 
ing place for the court in summer. 

Liechtenstein Castle. — A visit to the Castle of 
Lichtenstein is sure to be a delightful experience. 
It was my good fortune to be there on a Whit- 
monday, the day of the annual festival at the 
Nebelhohle. To be on hand in good time for the 
fete we spent Whitsunday at Honau, a wee little 
village in the valley deep down below the castle 
cliffs, where we found good board and pleasant 
quarters with a villager, and were thus able to 
enjoy a glimpse of life in this remote hamlet. The 
Sunday sermon and its audience suggested vividly 
the descriptions of Freitag. The procession of vil- 
lage geese winding their independent way home 
through the village at nightfall was an amusing 
scene. In the morning a boy had collected and 
led the flock to an enclosed pasture watered by 
a wide, shallow brook; at evening all that was 
necessary was that the gates should be opened. 
Each goose joined in its own company and fol- 
lowed its captain, and each flock marched sedately, 
in goose file, to its own home barnyard. The 
procession was long, the geese large and loqua- 



7o IN SUABIA-LAND 



cious, and the effect correspondingly imposing. 
To reach Honau we had come to Reutlingen, a 
picturesque old town on the Echaz. As one of 
the free imperial towns of the Suabian Alliance 
it played an important part in the earlier history 
of the country, especially during the times of 
Duke Ulrich. From there we had driven in a 
Beiwagon to Honau. On Monday morning we 
found places in one of the many curious vehicles 
impressed into service to carry the country peo- 
ple to the fete, — a long affair, not unlike our 
hay wagons, but not provided with any such 
cushioning for the jolts. 

The Nebelhohle is a stalactite grotto of con- 
siderable dimensions, about three miles west of 
the castle, and has become famous through Wil- 
liam Hauff's popular novel Lichtenstein. It was 
here that Duke Ulrich was concealed by his 
barons during the long months of his exile, com- 
ing each night to the castle for food and warmth. 
The countersign given when he reached the draw- 
bridge was ff Der Mann ist da" (the man is here). 
The castle of those times no longer exists, but 
Count William of Wiirtemberg has erected one 
on the same spot, which is exceedingly picturesque. 
Its situation is most impressive, a true eagle's nest 
built out on an isolated rock, which Schwab says 
"shoots up like a sunbeam," and is only accessible 
by a drawbridge. In front is a precipitous fall, 
and far below lies the green valley of Honau 
threaded by its two winding streams. Beyond is 
the Achalm and an extensive plain. When the 



IN SUABIA-LAND 71 



owner is not in residence visitors are admitted to 
the castle. 

Crossing the moat and drawbridge, one enters 
a small courtyard, enclosed by servants' quarters, 
and farther on finds a small garden shaded by old 
lindens. A second drawbridge spans the chasm 
between the mountain and the rock on which the 
castle itself, built in medieval fashion, is perched. 
The interior is handsomely finished, the walls 
covered with frescoes of scenes in the life of Duke 
Ulrich as depicted by Hauff, and contains a col- 
lection of antiquities and armor. The view from 
the high tower is exceedingly beautiful. 

The vicinity of Castle Lichtenstein has been 
made a literary shrine through the vivid descrip- 
tions in Hauff's novel of that name, and it is his 
characters whose memories here seem most real. 
He has given associations to every nook and 
described every locality. Fitting is it, therefore, 
that a statue of the author has been erected on a 
projecting rock outside the chateau, where he 
can thus visibly preside as tutelary genius over the 
place he has endowed with such popular immor- 
tality in the hearts of his admiring countrymen. 
On Whitsuntide, 1901, a dramatic representation, 
arranged by Rudolf Lorenz from Hauff's novel, 
was given in the festival hall at Honau, in sight 
of the castle, the players being from the surround- 
ing country, and this is to be annually repeated. 
On each Whitmonday the Nebelhohle is illum- 
inated, two thousand small wax tapers being 
stuck in the soft chalk of the walls and ceiling, 
and the visitor is guided through the various 



72 IN SUABIA-LAND 



caverns so graphically described by the novelist. 
One sees the stalactite halls, the pillars, what is 
described as the Throne, and Ulrica's Cave at the 
farther end, and can listen to the echoes and feel 
the desolation that must have been borne in upon 
the lonely exile. 

Up above, in the forest, the fete is held. Many 
come from far and near, some bringing their pic- 
nic dinner, others buying from the vendors, plen- 
tifully supplied with hot meat dumplings and 
other substantial viands. There was music and 
dancing, and the gay costumes of the peasants 
made a striking picture. Betzingen, a town much 
frequented by artists, is near by and nothing can 
be gayer than a dance of the Betzingen youth 
and maidens. The long white linen coat-tails flap 
and wave with the active leaps of their wearers, 
and the feet beneath the short full plisse skirts can 
tread a lively measure. It was a jolly scene and 
accompanied by no disorder. The Olgahohle 
at Honau is much smaller, but its stalactites are 
less blackened by torch smoke. 

The ascent of the high peak of Achalm is made 
from Reutlingen. About half way up is the royal 
sheep farm, and on top, in place of the ancient 
stronghold so often taken and retaken during the 
stormy days of Suabian history, is a huge, vaned 
outlook tower, from which there is a most ex- 
tensive view of the beautiful region below. 

Excursions to Chapels. — Another charming 
short excursion from Stuttgart is to Walderich's 
chapel, at Murrhardt. This valley of the Murr 
is of historic interest as having been the boundary 



IN SUABIA-LAND 73 



of the Roman Empire. Walderich's church is 
built on the site and with the stones of an old Ro- 
man fort, and the chapel is an exquisite example 
of the late Romanesque style of architecture. Its 
legendary origin dates from the days when King 
Louis the Pious, son and heir of Charlemagne, 
was betrayed by his people into the hands of his 
unfilial sons. He fled into Suabia and here, where 
the river Murr joins the Neckar, he was led, by 
the tinkling of a little bell, to a cave inhabited by 
a pious hermit, who received and sheltered him. 
At parting the holy man, to whom had been re- 
vealed in a dream the rank of his guest and his 
future re-elevation to his throne, begged only for 
the ground on which stood the humble hut, but 
the King gladly promised a church and cloister 
besides, and in time arose in the valley the beau- 
tiful stone chapel called after the hermit Wal- 
derich, with its cloister and charming garden. 
Walderich was its first abbot and with him were 
twelve monks of the Benedictine order. 

Another easy pilgrimage is to the Regiswindis 
chapel at Lauffen, whose old castle and church 
stand picturesquely on two rocks on opposite 
banks of the Neckar. Regiswindis was a Count's 
little daughter, drowned by her nurse in revenge 
for an injury and found floating days afterwards 
on the river, with arms outstretched, so that the 
body took the shape of a cross. This was enough 
to create a saint, and a chapel was raised over the 
child's burial-place. On the way from Stuttgart 
are some Roman and medieval ruins, and just 
beyond Lauffen is the very interesting old town 



74 IN SUABIA-LAND 



of Heilbronn, now a busy manufacturing city. 
This has been immortalized by Goethe and relics 
of his knight, Gotz von Berlichingen, of the Iron 
Hand, abound. Emperors and kings have here 
held court in what is now known as the "Deutsche 
Haus." Behind the fine church of St. Kilian is 
the Heilbrunnen (healing well) from which the 
town derives its name. 

Maulbronn has a beautiful Cistercian Abbey, 
consecrated in 1 187 and added to through subse- 
quent centuries. It is one of the best preserved 
of the older monasteries of Germany, and has 
been lately restored. Near here are the ruins of 
Hohenasperg, first a fortress, then a state prison, 
where some illustrious prisoners have been con- 
fined. The Benedictine monastery at Lorch was 
founded by the Hohenstauffens in 1102, and con- 
tains several of their tombs and monuments. 

Famous Springs and Cures. — There are said 
to be seventy-five mineral springs in Wurtemberg, 
and at each are attractions provided for the vis- 
itor. About sixty-five hundred summer guests 
come annually to Wildbad, situated in the nar- 
row ravine of the Enz in the Black Forest, and 
this watering-place is equipped with all the amuse- 
ments and pleasure-grounds which numerous 
large hotels create around them. 

A very different atmosphere, however, is that 
breathed at Bad Boll, under the charge of the 
pious Blumhardt family. This establishment, 
with its sulphur baths, was bought of the King 
of Wurtemberg about 1850 by Pastor Blumhardt, 
father of the present head of the family, and is a 



IN SUABIA-LAND 



75 



quiet retreat for those seeking peace of mind and 
religious meditation. In the time of the elder 
Blumhardt faith-healing, by prayer, was a fea- 
ture of the place, but now the cure sought seems 
to be that of the mind and soul rather than of 
the body. Religious services are held daily and 
an earnest devotional spirit pervades the place, 
all whose inmates dwell together as members of 
one family. Rank is never considered ; a countess 
sits contentedly next to a mechanic; indeed, of 
late the establishment has fallen into disfavor with 
many of its former patrons because of the growth 
of its socialistic tendencies. The grounds are very 
attractive; there are natural woods and fields 
overrun with flowers, and the building is most 
simple in its furnishings. The different Blum- 
hardt families live there as patriarchal heads of 
a tribe of followers and carry on practical farm- 
ing. To reach this really charming retreat of 
"The Simple Life" we went to Goppingen, then 
drove the four miles to Bad Boll. 



CHAPTER IX 
The Suabian Alb 

No visitor to Wurtemberg will tarry long 
before exploring the high, cone-shaped hills of the 
Suabian Alb, whose beauties so fascinate from 
every point of view in the Neckar Valley. The 
country, though wooded and picturesque, is not 
wild and pleasant retreats are numerous. Not 
much equipment but a wanderer's staff and a 



76 IN SUABIA-LAND 



friendly disposition is needed. The wallet counts, 
of course, but one's wants are limited and the de- 
mands will not prove excessive. In 1889 an "Alb- 
verein" was organized by the late Dr. Saltz- 
mann of Esslingen, which now numbers over 
twenty-five thousand members and is a popular 
enthusiasm of the Schwabs. Its aim is to cultivate 
the love for mountain excursions and to increase 
facilities for the excursionists. 

From the broad platform on top of the Rech- 
berg is obtained, perhaps, the finest view. There 
are the ruins of an old castle and a pilgrimage 
chapel, where can be obtained a lunch by day but 
no camp by night. Undoubtedly, however, the 
peak of the Hohenstauffen, so rich with historic 
associations, most allures. Nothing is left of the 
ancient castle on the summit, which was de- 
stroyed in 1525 during the Peasant War, and the 
small church is the only relic of the lordly House 
of Hohenstauffen still standing. 

On its restored gable is the imperial eagle, and 
around it are the names of the Emperors of this 
famous family, whose race became so early ex- 
tinct. The armorial bearings of the seven an- 
cient Electorates of Germany, those of the 
former kingdoms of Jerusalem and of the other 
countries over which these imperious Emperors 
ruled — Burgundy, Holland, Denmark, Poland, 
Sardinia, Naples — are there emblazoned, and on 
one wall is an old fresco of Frederick Barbarossa 
with its inscriptions of the Sixteenth Century, re- 
cording that the Emperor "amor bonorum, terror 
malorum' > entered by that door, now long ago 



IN SUABIA-LAND 77 



walled up. On a lower peak of the hill are the 
ruins of the Castle of Hohenrechberg, which was 
burned in 1865. 

The Siege of Hohenstauffen. — Most different 
must be the view that now greets the eye from 
that stretch of thickly wooded country that lay 
beneath the gaze of those knights and squires who 
built and occupied these strong towers on the hill- 
tops; and to replace present associations by past 
ones the traveler must let memory recall the in- 
cidents and traditions of the royal family life in 
their ancestral castle which have come down to 
us. One of the earliest of these pictures of the 
past, perhaps, is that given by Belschner — a Wiir- 
temberg historian — of a happening about 11 27, 
when King Lothair of Saxony, warring against 
Suabia, laid siege to this Hohenstauffen fortress, 
because within it were the dearest things that 
Duke Frederick possessed, namely, his wife and 
children. Fear fell upon the household as they 
saw the large besieging army and knew their own 
weak condition — a few dependants under the 
charge of a ninety years old castellan, Sueneger — 
and that no word could reach their absent lord. 
Food and water soon failed, and the little Fred- 
erick, with the blue eyes and blond hair, who af- 
terwards became the famous Barbarossa, shared 
his portion with the rest. The Dutchess became 
very ill, and the only hope was in the return of 
Duke Frederick, for whom a sharp watch was 
kept from the tower. 

One afternoon came the news, filling all hearts 
with hope, that the returning army could be seen 



78 IN SUABIA-LAND 



on its way from Gmund. Alas ! the approaching 
banners proved, on nearer view, to be those of 
Henry, Duke of Bavaria, brother to Duchess 
Judith, but enemy of her lord, on his way to join 
the besiegers. The watch hastened again to the 
Duchess with the evil tidings. Then her heart 
broke with sorrow, and with a despairing cry she 
fell dead. Great was the grief at the death of the 
beloved lady, and mournful the laments of the 
royal children, while in the midst of all came a 
herald with a demand for surrender. The old 
castellan made reply: "Grant us a two-day truce. 
We have in our midst a distinguished corpse and 
beg for security while we bury our dead at 
Lorch." King Lothair granted the request and 
the castle gate opened for the funeral procession. 
Behind the chaplain was carried the coffin cov- 
ered with flowers and the arms of the Stauflens 
and Welfs ; then followed the old castellan, lead- 
ing little Frederick by the hand, and, lastly, came 
the two little daughters. When the procession 
had reached the tents of King Lothair and Duke 
Henry, old Sueneger called to the bearer to put 
down the coffin, took off the cover and, turning 
to the King, said: "That you may see that we 
practice no deceit look upon the corpse." 

Then fell Duke Henry's gaze on the white 
face of his dead sister, whose heart he had bro- 
ken, and grief overcame the strong warrior. He 
sank down on his knees by the coffin, and his tears 
dropped upon the thin folded hands. He and all 
his knights accompanied the body to its burial, 
and afterwards he bade goodbye to King Lothair 



IN SUABIA-LAND 79 



and withdrew his force. The scene had made so 
sorrowful an impression also upon the King that 
the same day on which Duchess Judith's body was 
laid to rest in the cloisters of Lorch saw the 
withdrawal of all the besieging army. 

Songs of Love. — Other pictures are more 
peaceful. From the burg went out the warring 
bands, but within its walls did the knights and 
ladies find time for chivalrous amusement and do- 
mestic relaxation. The young heirs learned to 
mount their steeds and throw their lance; the 
dames embroidered tokens and reared children. 
Here, in the long dull winter evenings, collected 
the household around roaring log-fires and lis- 
tened to the lay of the minnesinger, or the tale of 
the wandering minstrel. Here, on this very hill- 
top, did Walter von der Vogelweide, friend and 
companion to Emperor Frederick, sing praises 
to the beauty and purity of the fair dames of the 
imperial household, as well as of the Nature he 
loved so well. Gathered in the great hall of the 
castle, the ladies probably on a dais, embroidering, 
servants below working, logs crackling, torches 
blazing, the warriors recounted deeds of valor 
and the wonders of the foreign lands they had 
seen in the Crusades. From time to time would 
the talk cease as all listened to the sweet song 
of the prince of minnesingers as he chanted, per- 
haps, the following love-song: 

"Thoroughly sweet and full of loveliness are 
pure women. There was never anything so 
lovely in all the air, or on earth, or in all the 
green meadows. Lilies and roses, when they 



8o IN SUABIA-LAND 



shine in the May dew through the grass, and 
the song of little birds, are, compared with this 
charm, without color or sound. If one sees beau- 
tiful women, that can refresh the troubled spirit 
and extinguish at the same time all lamenting, 
when their sweet red lips entrancingly laugh in 
love, and arrows dart from their eyes to the bot- 
tom of man's heart."* 

To-day all this has vanished, save in mem- 
ory, but there is still a power in the past 
that holds sway over the thoughtful visitor who 
reclines dreamingly on the greensward under the 
gaze of the imperial eagle on the church-gable. 

On the Hohenneuffen. — For natural beauty 
the traveller will now turn to the Leininger Val- 
ley, one of the most beautiful in the whole Alb, 
from where he can ascend to the ruined ances- 
tral castle of the Duke of Teck, also command- 
ing a fine view. From the dales the eye is con- 
tinually drawn to the picturesque hills ; from the 
hilltops it rests, admiringly, on the beautiful val- 
leys of the Neckar and its tributaries, their or- 
chards and vine-planted slopes, and the many 
towns and villages which dot the plains. 

Conspicuous from below is the Hohenneuffen, 
its top crowned by the imposing ruins of an an- 
cient fortress. Legends cluster here, often con- 
tradictory, of the "white ass of Hohenneuffen, " 
whose hoof long remained nailed on the wall of 
the porter's lodge. Some say that it was the 
means of delivery from siege, through trickery. 
Although in sore distress for food, the garrison 



*Mrs. Hosmer. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 81 



had caused the ass to be well fattened and then 
thrown over the walls. The enemy, thinking 
that if an ass should be so fat the fortress' sup- 
plies must be inexhaustible, withdrew from the 
siege. 

Prettier than this tale is the poet's story of the 
fair Vola, daughter of the lord of the castle, 
who, aware of the giving out of their water sup- 
ply, slipped out at night, though with her father's 
consent, and on this snow white ass made her 
perilous descent into the camp below. The leader 
was her lover, and her mission was to ransom, by 
gift of herself, her father's castle, which was 
happily accomplished. 

To Hohen ITrach. — Another charming excur- 
sion is to Hohen Urach. The path through the 
beech woods is very attractive, and on top is the 
ruined fortress. Interest here centres on the true 
and tragic story of the poet, Frischlin. Professor 
at Tubingen University, a brilliant scholar and 
poet, he was a democratic son of the people and 
was accused of preaching the revolutionary doc- 
trine that, if Suabia must have an aristocracy at 
all, it should be one based on merit, not birth. In 
those days these were treasonable thoughts, and 
therefore was Frischlin, in the year 1590, ar- 
rested and carried to the fortress of Hohen 
Urach. Separated from his true and beautiful 
wife, Marguerite, his one thought was to regain 
his freedom. Making a cord of torn clothing and 
blankets, he attempted to lower himself over the 
precipice, but was dashed to pieces on the rocks 
below. 



82 IN SUABIA-LAND 



The waterfall of Urach is quite famous, drop- 
ping to a depth of eighty feet. The best view is 
from the point below, called the Olga Ruhe in 
commemoration of a visit of Queen Olga to the 
falls. A pleasant place for a sojourn here on the 
Alb is the quaint town of Urach, which can be 
made the centre of many interesting excursions. 

Castle of Hohenzollern. — Another Mecca to 
the traveler is the Castle of Hohenzollern, situ- 
ated on an isolated, wooded eminence near Hech- 
ingen. The old castle, the cradle of the reigning 
dynasty of Prussia, was destroyed in 1423, but on 
its ruins was built, in the latter part of the 
Nineteenth Century, the present magnificent 
structure in the style of the Fourteenth, by Em- 
peror Frederick William. The entire summit of 
the high rock is enclosed by high walls in the 
shape of a heptagon, with bastions and corner tur- 
rets. Within these is the castle, comprising five 
towers, a court and garden, two chapels and a 
barrack. A company of infantry is stationed 
here. The Hohenzollerns, whose name is derived 
from this ancestral castle Zollern, occupied an im- 
portant position among the small princely 
Suabian families as early as the Twelfth Century. 
"Acquisitiveness and a capacity to hold what was 
once obtained and to administer it with thrift, 
seems to have characteristized, to a greater or 
less degree, all the Franconian Hohenzollern 
princes," says a writer. In 141 5 this line ob- 
tained the Brandenburg Electorate as a pledge for 
a loan to Emperor Sigismund; in 1701 the 
Elector became King of Prussia, and in 1871 it 



IN SUABIA-LAND 83 



was William of Hohenzollern who was acclaimed 
Emperor of Germany at Versailles. The province 
of Hohenzollern covers 440 square miles ; is com- 
pletely surrounded by Baden and Wurtemberg, 
and crossed by the Danube and the "rauhe Alb." 

Fortress of Hohentwiel. — The historic fortress 
of Hohentwiel makes an imposing ruin, and the 
view from the top of this high, detached, vol- 
canic cone is most extensive, commanding Lake 
Constance and the Tyrolese Alps, reaching even 
to Mt. Blanc. The stronghold was almost im- 
pregnable by situation, perched on the steep, high 
rock, which rises nearly perpendicularly on the 
side near Singen. After having resisted many 
sieges, it yielded without a blow, in 1800, at the 
demand of the French General, Van Damme, and 
was destroyed by Napoleon's orders in October 
of the same year, contrary to the terms of the ca- 
pitulation. The hero of Hohentwiel was Conrad 
Wiederhold, who commanded the fortress for 
fourteen years, during the period of the Thirty 
Years War. A brave, devoted captain, he led 
the bold company of one hundred musketeers, 
who comprised his entire garrison, on many suc- 
cessful exploits, constantly making forages on the 
enemy and returning with various plunder — once 
with an organ for his new church on the hill. The 
sick, poor and wounded were tenderly cared for 
at his table, for a warm heart accompanied the 
fearless spirit. Under the bust on his grave at 
Kircheim is the epitaph: 



84 IN SUABIA-LAND 



"The commandant at Hohentwiel, 
Firm as his rock which never yielded; 
The defence of Princes; the vexation of the enemy; 
The friend of art; the refuge of the poor; 
A citizen, hero and Christian like gold — 
So sleeps here Conrad Wiederhold." 

City of Ulm. — Next to the capital the largest 
city in Wiirtemberg is Ulm, situated at the head 
of navigation on the Danube. This city has a 
dignified, medieval appearance, with quaint, nar- 
row streets, and Sixteenth Century architecture. 
It was the most important of the Suabian free 
imperial cities, and is mentioned as early as 854. 
Ulm was the spot where the meistersingers lin- 
gered longest, "preserving without text or notes 
the traditional love of their craft." The pride 
and chief attraction of Ulm is the beautiful Early 
Gothic Protestant Cathedral, next to Cologne the 
largest in Germany, holding thirty thousand peo- 
ple. On the 30th June, 1377, the cornerstone of 
this wonderful Miinster was laid, amid great 
enthusiasm. 

Lake Constance. — A beautiful place of sojourn 
is Lake Constance, which lies between Wiirtem- 
berg and Switzerland, a mirror for the Alps be- 
yond. It is about forty-two miles in length and 
eight miles in breadth, and its picturesque and 
wooded banks and islands with the distant hills 
and snow-clad mountains, make it a most attrac- 
tive resort. Steamboats ply constantly between the 
principal places, and delightful excursions can be 
made in all directions. The banks of the lake 
belong to five different states, viz., Bavaria, 
Wiirtemberg, Baden, Switzerland and Austria. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 85 



Friedrichshafen is a quiet, pretty modern town, 
founded by King Frederick of Wurtemberg. 

The Black Forest. — In the southwest lies the 
great Black Forest, so magical in allurement to all 
those who love the absolute seclusion and wildness 
of Nature. Released from superstitious fear of 
the mysterious, legendary spirits with which the 
old folk-lore peopled these forest glades, their 
fabled existence adds yet a delightful glamour of 
mystery and romance to the Schwarzwald, so 
called from the dark-tinted foliage of its many 
evergreens. The scenery is not grand; the hills 
do not rise into peaks, but are rather rounded 
plateaus, separated from each other by the deep 
ravines of the streams. The trees are small, 
mostly evergreens, but mingled with oak and 
beech ; it is their vast succession and the absolute 
seclusion that so impress and delight. The for- 
est, which contains about 1,900 square miles, is 
in the shape of a triangle, its base resting on the 
Rhine between Lake Constance and Basle, and its 
apex pointing north. The descent on the Rhine 
side is precipitous. 

Only one-third of the Black Forest belongs to 
Wurtemberg; the most frequented portion is in 
Baden, around Fribourg. It is rich in mineral 
springs and gives rise to the Danube and the 
Neckar, as well as the smaller streams of the 
Murr, Kinsig, Elz, Enz and Wiessen. Its great- 
est elevation is the Feldberg, 4,892 feet. Near 
this is the Holle (Hell) Pass, a narrow ravine 
shut in by high mountain sides, celebrated in con- 
nection with General Moreau's retreat in 1796. 



86 IN SUABIA-LAND 



The soil Is poor for agriculture, but cattle-rear- 
ing is carried on successfully. The inhabitants 
are a simple, kindly folk, who have woven and 
inherited a tissue of legends which hover over the 
entire region and make deep impress on the life 
and customs of the scattered villages. The chief 
occupation is the manufacture of wooden articles, 
especially of the so-called "Dutch clocks," many 
of which are most ingeniously automatic. Music 
boxes are also made in considerable quantities. 



CHAPTER X 
Art and Literature 

"They sing of love and Springtime, of happy golden days; 
Of manly worth and freedom, of faith and holy ways. 
They sing of all things lovely that human hearts delight, 
They sing of all things lofty that human souls excite. 

— Uhland. 

There has never been a Suabian "school of 
painting," and no great artists have arisen within 
her borders. Most of the early fresco-paintings 
on the walls of the cloisters and chapels were long 
ago painted over. Some of these have, however, 
been restored during the last two decades. Al- 
tar-pieces of the Fourteenth Century are quite 
numerous. The most important painter of that 
time was Bartholomew Zeitblom. The sculptor, 
Dannecker (i 758-1 841), has, perhaps, con- 
tributed the most glory to the native art of 
Wurtemberg. He was the son of a groom in 
the service of the Duke of Wurtemberg; was 
born at Waldenbuch and educated at the Karl- 



IN SUABIA-LAND 87 



schule, where he formed a life friendship with 
Schiller. Later he studied at Paris, and in Rome 
came under the teaching and influence of Ca- 
nova. Dannecker was undoubtedly one of the 
greatest of modern sculptors. He was director 
of the Art School at Stuttgart, and with his 
associate, P. T. Schiffauer, (1756-1808), intro- 
duced the classic spirit into German art. His 
finest works are not, however, to be found in 
Wurtemberg. They are the "Ariadne," at 
Frankfort, and a statue of Christ, which is in one 
of the Moscow churches. A fine bust of Schiller 
by him is in the Stuttgart Art Museum. 

Architecture. — The first example of Suabian 
architecture is the cloister at Hirsau, consecrated 
1 09 1. This is in the Roman style, as were all 
the buildings of the Tenth to the Thirteenth 
Centuries, of which other fine specimens can be 
seen at Ellwangen, Alpirsbach, Lorch, Reichen- 
bach, Komburg, etc. The Cistercian cloisters, 
especially of Maulbronn and Bebenhausen, are 
masterpieces of this architecture of the Middle 
Ages. In the Thirteenth Century the pointed 
arch of the Early Gothic style was introduced. 
One of the earliest and finest specimens of this 
style is the Marienkirche in Reutlingen. Begun 
in the Romanesque style, in 1247, it was finished 
nearly one hundred years later in the Early 
Gothic. Other specimens of this style can be 
seen in Leonberg, Waiblingen, Esslingen, Bob- 
lingen, Heilbrunn, Lauffen, etc. 

By 1350 the true Gothic was universally estab- 
lished, and now arose those beautiful spires of 



88 IN SUABIA-LAND 



stone lacework, such as the Frauenkirche of 
Esslingen and the Ulm Minister. To this period 
belong some beautiful carvings and stone reliefs, 
as those of the Church of the Holy Cross at 
Gmund; the fine "bride relief " of the Rottweiler 
Chapel, and the side portal of the Ulm Minister. 
In 1500 there was a change to the Renaissance 
style, and in this are built the many castles and 
public buildings with which the Wurtemberg 
Dukes so adorned their realm. The greatest 
builder was Duke Karl, who also established the 
Academy of Art and the Karlschule. 

Songs of Suabia. — The beginnings of Suabian 
literature can be traced to the days of the Teu- 
tonic migrations, but there is little that survives 
of the heroic songs of that barbaric time. Sup- 
pressed by the conscientious zeal of missionary 
and monk, it was but a vague tradition that lin- 
gered, reappearing only later in the folk-song of 
the people. As the dawn of the new civilization 
succeeded the night of barbarism, we have but 
monkish writings, until, under the impressive 
Hohenstauffen Emperors, culture became an at- 
tribute of courts, and the lays of the minnesinger 
were heard in Germany. 

This was the period of the isolated castle on the 
top of the mountain, with the small village below, 
and, while the burghers imitated their lords, there 
was a distinct difference in subject and treat- 
ment between the Popular Poetry and the Court 
Epic. The subjects of the former were the great 
national traditions, which the church had but 
partially succeeded in obliterating from the popu- 



IN SUABIA-LAND 89 



lar heart and mind. The latter treated mostly of 
foreign adventure and the chivalry of France and 
Italy, of Charlemagne and his paladins, of King 
Arthur and his knights, of the heroes of Italian 
troubadour and French trouvere. 

Of the Popular Poetry the most important is 
the Epic of the Niebelungen Lied, which has 
come down from the year 1200, and parts of 
which were in existence one thousand years 
earlier. This poem, of nine to ten thousand lines, 
reflects the dark imagery of the North rather than 
that of the sunnier South, and is of wondrous 
force and beauty. The compiler is unknown, but 
he performed his work with rare skill, arranging 
the lays of the people, heretofore orally transmit- 
ted, into this great poem, since become the na- 
tional Epic 

Longfellow says that the first stanza of the 
Song of the Niebelungen, like the overture of an 
opera, contains the theme of the whole piece : 

"In ancient song and story marvels high are told, 
Of nights of high emprize and adventures manifold; 
Of joy and merrv feasting, of lamenting, woe and fear; 
Of champions' bloody battles many marvels shall ye hear." 

The Heldenbuch is a collection of early national 
traditions in poetic form, the oldest of which are 
said to belong to the Suabian period. 

Among the court singers stands out Walter 
von der Vogelweide, not of Suabian birth, but 
intimate comrade of Emperor Frederick II., him- 
self a minnesinger — in whose German domains 
his life was chieflly spent. If for nothing else 
than his love for Germany, he deserves a place 
among her poets. The minnesingers were not all 



90 IN SUABIA-LAND 



of so lofty a character. Some were affected and 
absurd, but all mirrored more or less the life 
about them. The great names among the court 
singers are Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von 
Strassbourg, and Wolfram von Eschenbach. 

The Meistersingers. — Following the brilliant 
epoch of the Hohenstauffens, there was a great 
change in German life, which now centred in the 
cities, and literature turned from the castle and 
hall to address itself to the burghers. The suc- 
cessors of the minnesingers were the meister- 
singers, no longer men of knightly valor, but wan- 
dering minstrels and poets of inferior rank and 
birth, and often of corrupt life, who made their 
poetry a profession. It was these who went 
about from place to place engaging in contests, 
romantic accounts of which have come down to 
us. Successful contestants were richly deco- 
rated, silver chains put about their neck and 
wreaths on their heads, and they received great 
popular applause. "The names of some of the 
favorite airs that have come down to us," says 
Hosmer, "are very fantastic: 'The Striped-saf- 
fron Flower-tune of Hans Findeisen,' 'The Eng- 
lish Tin-tune of Casper Enderles,' 'The Blood- 
gleaming Wire-tune of Jobst Zolner/ 'The 
Many-colored Coat-tune of F. Fromer.' " 

Longfellow says of the meistersingers that they 
"were for the most part mechanics, who had in- 
corporated themselves into guilds, or singing- 
schools, and beautified their daily toil by the 
charms of song: 



IN SUABIA-LAND 91 



"As the weaver plied the shuttle wove he too the mystic 
rhyme, 

And the smith his iron measures hammered to the anvil's 
chime. 

Thanking God, whose boundless wisdom makes the flower 

of poesy bloom 

In the forge's dust and cinders, in the tissues of the loom." 

The organization was at first known as "The 
Corporation of the Twelve Wise Masters." In 
1820 there were still twelve meistersingers living 
in Ulm, and in 1839 the four survivors formally 
made over their insignia and guild property to a 
modern singing society, thus closing the record of 
Meister-gesang in Germany. 

Suabian Learning. — Learning now became 
more general, and it was said that in 1492 the 
humblest knight could read and write; while a 
historian of that time declared that out of no 
other nation went forth so many clergymen, 
teachers and musicians as out of Suabia. The 
first physician mentioned by name was Nicholas 
von Schwerdt, of Gmund, in the year 1405, while 
the Court Apothecary shop founded in 141 3 was 
long the only one in the Dukedom. Printing 
presses were found in the larger cities after 1468. 
The first public library in Germany was that of 
the Ulm Minister (1433). 

During succeeding centuries there is no especial 
name that adds lustre to Suabian literature. Jo- 
hann Kepler, the famous astronomer, was born at 
Wiel in 1571. On account of his unorthodox be- 
liefs he was persecuted, although all Europe was 
filled with the fame of his discoveries. His mother 
was accused of being a witch, but finally was 



IN SUABIA-LAND 



freed, while Kepler's life was one continuous 
struggle for the bare means of subsistence. 

Christian Daniel Schubart (i 739-1 791), poet, 
story-teller and musician, was a man of great 
talent, but dangerous frankness of speech. In pub- 
lishing the Deutsche Chronik, he oifended Duke 
Karl, who kept him imprisoned in the fortress of 
Hohenasperg for ten years, after which he was 
court poet and theatre director in Stuttgart. He 
had great poetic gifts, but their expression was 
sadly hindered by his dissipated life. 

The poet and humanist, Christian Martin 
Wieland, was born in Oberholzheim in 1733. 
He studied law at Tubingen, was called in 1769 
to Erfurt as Professor of Philosophy, and in 1772 
went to live in Weimar as instructor of the young 
Crown Prince, Karl August. At the age of 
twenty-four his fame was established by the ap- 
pearance of his play, Muscarion. He was not a 
creative genius, but gained the ease and charm of 
his style through hard labor. Of his Oberon 
Goethe said: "As long as poetry remains poetry, 
gold gold, and crystal crystal, it will be loved and 
admired as a masterpiece of poetic art." His ro- 
mance, called The Ahderites, is exceedingly hu- 
morous and absurd. It is an account of a great 
law suit in Abdera, brought by a donkey driver 
against a dentist, who sat down and rested one hot 
day in the shadow of the donkey and yet refused 
later to pay the driver's bill for that privilege. 
In the end the entire population of the city was 
divided into parties called "asses" and "shadows," 
between whom the feud was bitter and amusing, 



IN SUABIA-LAND 93 



the whole being a satire on the evils of litigation. 
Shakespeare was made familiar to German read- 
ers through Wieland's translations. His popu- 
larity was immense. He was decorated by Na- 
poleon, knighted by Alexander of Russia, and was 
a close friend of Goethe and Schiller. 

Johann Christoph Schiller. — This last name is 
the greatest in Suabia's annals. Johann Christoph 
Schiller was born in 1759, at Marbach. His 
early life was restricted and repressed. Destined 
by his parents for the ministry, he was offered by 
the Duke of Wiirtemberg a place in the Karl- 
schule which they did not dare refuse, although 
the personal restraint and pedagogical narrow- 
ness of this institution were exceedingly irksome 
and vexatious. He then studied medicine, but 
soon after graduation gave voice to the restless- 
ness in his own heart and that of the times by the 
publication of The Robbers, which, while ex- 
travagant, yet expressed with great truth and 
force the reactionary sentiments which were a 
product of the repressive social order of that era. 
This was received with great enthusiasm in Ger- 
many and translated into many languages, but 
offended the Duke of Wiirtemberg, who arrested 
the author for a fortnight and forbade him 
"henceforth and forever to compose comedies or 
anything of that sort." Mindful of the fate of 
Schubart, the youthful author slipped out of the 
gates of Stuttgart, and fled to Mannheim, and 
his after life was passed at Jena, where he held 
a philosophical professorship, and at Weimar, at 



94 IN SUABIA-LAND 



the hospitable court of the enlightened Duke Karl 
August, who honored him with a title. 

Schiller's most important dramas are The Rob- 
bers, Wallenstein, Maria Stuart, The Maid of 
Orleans, The Bride of Messina, and William 
TelL His principal historical works are The 
Revolt of the Netherlands and The Thirty Years 
War; and in poetry The Walk and The Song of 
the Bell. He was possessed of a most beautiful 
creative fancy and wrote with great truth and 
moral earnestness. His characters do not so 
much stand out as individual beings as they are 
expressions of ideas — political, civil, moral — so 
that through them we can see the soul of the 
author. Poetry was his chosen medium of ex- 
pression ; through it he could best express his 
strong sentiments on the subjects of the dignity 
of humanity and personal freedom, and it is in 
his lyrics and ballads that his inner self is most 
completely revealed. Franke quotes a verse from 
his poem of The A rtists : 

"Borne on your daring pinions soar sublime, 
Above the shoal and eddy of the time, 
Far glimmering on your wizard mirror see, 
The silent shadow of the age to be;" 

and says that in it "we have an epitome of all the 
best and highest which Schiller's life, so prema- 
turely and abruptly to be ended, has given to the 
world." 

He died at the age of forty-five, May 9, 1805, 
and his memory is revered greatly by the German 
people.. On the ninetieth birthday of the poet a 
Suabian Schiller Society was formed for the pur- 
pose of creating a Schiller Museum in Marbach 



IN SUABIA-LAND 95 



and otherwise honoring his memory. Wiirtem- 
berg celebrated the centenary of his birth by a na- 
tional festival, and on May 9, 1905, the one hun- 
dredth anniversary of his death was observed by 
all the German Societies at home and abroad. 

The Poet Uhland. — Johann Ludwig Uhland 
was one of the sweetest of Germany's lyric poets. 
In popularity he ranks next to Schiller. Uhland 
was born in Tubingen in 1787, and studied law 
at the University there. His verse — 

"I toiled at law with effort strong 
Against the promptings of my heart, 
And from the clasp of charming song 
Had torn myself but half apart" — 

shows "his inward struggle between the study of 
the law which he loved so little and the charm of 
poetry which he loved so much." He, however, 
pursued his study, being convinced that every 
man, poet or not, should have a serious occupa- 
tion in life. He took an active part, also, in pub- 
lic affairs, which led to a remonstrance from 
Goethe that there were plenty of men in Suabia 
capable of serving the state, but there was only 
one such poet as Uhland. 

He was eminently a ballad writer, treating 
simple subjects with sympathy, cheerfulness and a 
tender love of Nature, and renewing the charm 
and simple grace of The Volklied in Germany 
literature. In his drama Ernst von Schwahen, 
he recalls the spirit and times of the earlier min- 
strels he so much loved. Uhland wrote 350 
poems, fully half of them masterpieces. From 
1 8 14 to the present time not a year has passed in 
Germany without a new edition of his poems. His 



96 IN SUABIA-LAND 



life was spent quietly in his home in Tubingen. 
One of his countrymen said of him that he was "a 
genuine nightingale, to be heard, not seen." Uh- 
land was a devoted lover of his Fatherland, and in 
public life stood out bravely for popular rights, 
civil equality and intellectual freedom. Among 
his numerous followers are some gifted poets, who 
constitute what has been called the Suabian school 
of poetry. He died in 1862. 

The Novelist Hanff. — Very popular among his 
countrymen is the novelist, William Hauff, born 
in Stuttgart in 1802. The period of his literary 
work was composed within the short space of 
two years, and his early death at the age of twen- 
ty-five (1827) was a serious loss to Suabian lit- 
erature. In 1826 his first volume, The Marchen 
Almanack— a collection of fairy tales, which he 
used to relate to pupils during his tutorship — was 
published. They were original and written with 
a delicious humor and an elegance of style not 
customary in such productions. Their success was 
immediate, and his fame as a narrator was there- 
after established. His novel Lichtenstein, in- 
spired by the historical tales of Sir Walter Scott, 
illustrates the most interesting period of Wiir- 
temberg's history. It is the first distinctly his- 
torical romance in Suabian literature, although 
the alleged facts are purely imaginative. 

Kerner and von Scheffel. — Justinius Kerner, 
born in 1786 in Ludwigsburg, was the author of 
many extremely popular poems. In prose his hu- 
morous and sympathetic Picture Book out of my 
Childhood is the best. 



IN SUABIA-LAND 97 



Another favorite Suabian writer was Joseph 
Victor von Scheffel (1826- 1886), a native of 
Karlsruhe. Scheffel was another example of the 
difficulty of at once recognizing his right vocation. 
He studied law and practised six years at Sak- 
kingen; then went to Rome to fulfil a cherished 
desire to become a painter, only to find that he 
had mistaken his genius. He retired to Capri, 
overcome with despondency, and it was there that, 
seeking to overcome his disappointment, he com- 
posed that romantic, humorously melancholy 
poem, Der Trompeter von Sakkingen, which was 
to establish his fame. Returning to Germany he 
began his romance, Ekkehard. These two works 
had a success unequalled before in the history of 
German literature. DerTrompeter has been called 
the most popular German epic of the century, 
Ekkehard is a blending of history and poetry, a 
vivid and picturesque picture of the life of the 
Tenth Century in Suabia. In 1895 Der Trom- 
peter had reached its 216th edition, and Ekkehard 
its 143 rd. In high spirits over his success he 
wrote the rollicking student songs of the collec- 
tion GaudeamuSj appropriated by the youth of 
the universities. His fiftieth birthday was cele- 
brated all over Germany, and the Grand Duke of 
Baden conferred on him a title of hereditary no- 
bility. The later years of his life were saddened 
by melancholy. 

Schwab, Schelling and Hegel. — Gustav 
Schwab ( 1 791-1850) was a poet and prose 
writer, who endeared himself to his compatriots 
by his Wanderings through Suabia, collections of 



98 IN SUABIA-LAND 



German volksbooks and tales of ancient times. 
Among the more modern popular poets and writ- 
ers of Wurtemberg are Karl Gerok, Edward 
Morike, Albert Knapp, F. T. Vischer, J. G. 
Fisher and Ottilie Wildermuth. 

In philosophy Wurtemberg is well represented 
by Frederick William Joseph von Schelling 
(1775-1854) and George William Frederick 
Hegel (17701831). The former was born at 
Leonberg and studied at Tubingen. In 1798 he 
was called to be professor at Jena, then to Wurz- 
burg, later tp Munich and finally to Berlin. At 
first a disciple of Kant and Fichte, he adopted, 
successively, the standpoints of Bruno, Spinoza, 
Baader and Boehme. Schelling's writings pos- 
sess a power of arousing original thought. Some 
one says that "they reveal the morning red of 
truth and the student becomes a mystic and be- 
holds the truth for himself." 

Hegel was born in Stuttgart. While at the Uni- 
versity of Tubingen his intellect was aroused by 
contact with Schilling, whose friend and disciple 
he avowed himself for some years to come. He- 
gel's system of philosophy has been called that 
of the Absolute Idea. To think and to be was 
the same. "He conceived, " says Franke, "the hu- 
man mind to be the highest form of the Divine 
spirit accessible to our understanding, and that 
man's consciousness of God was self-conscious- 
ness." He believed that the highest freedom was 
the service of the state, and rose to great po- 
litical influence through his public services. 

Johann Christian Frederick Holderlin (1770- 



IN SUABIA-LAND 99 



1843) was born at Lauffen and educated at Tu- 
bingen with Hegel and Schelling. He pos- 
sessed rare poetic gifts, but with eccentric ten- 
dencies. His romance Hyperion is epistolary in 
form and classic in style. Some of his lyrics are 
very beautiful. In 1803 his mind failed. 

Conclusion. — Lord Bacon has said that "he 
that traveleth into a country before he hath some 
entrance into the language goeth to school and 
not to travel/ 1 A scanty English is spoken 
throughout Germany, while there is always the 
lesser obstacle of the different dialects to over- 
come. For fullest enjoyment, however, the trav- 
eler in Wiirtemberg should not only speak the 
language, but be familiar with the popular native 
literature. This is a great help in establishing 
comradeship with the many enthusiasts one meets 
on the Suabian hills, from whose hearts and 
tongues come so readily the tales and ballads of 
their beloved poets. Happy is he who has made 
previous acquaintance with Lichtenstein and the 
Marchen, with Ekkehard and Der Trompeter 
vor Sakkingerij and the songs of Gandeamus, 
Many of the ballads have "a local habitation and 
a name," and a volume of Uhland's poems is a 
handy addition to the traveler's knapsack. Thus 
is one best fitted to thoroughly enjoy the sim- 
plicity and happy spirit of this romantic, cheerful 
and beautiful Suabian land. 



LOFC. 



ioo IN SUABIA-LAND 



INDEX TO 

Achalm, 66, 70, 72 
Agriculture, 33, 58 
Alamanni, 11 
Architecture, 87 
Bad Boll, 74 
Baden-Baden, 83-85 
Baur, Frederick C, 68 
Bebenhausen, 68, 87 
Betzingen, 72 
Black Forest, 8, 52, 74, 85 
Cafes, country, 59 
Cannstadt, 65 
Christmas, 49 
Conrad, 21 
Conradin, 22 
Constance, Lake, 8, 83 
Costumes, 51 
Dannecker, 63 
Doffinger, 24 
Easter, 50 

Eberhard im Bart, 12, 32, 65, 
67 

Esslingen, 63 
Festivals, 48 

Frederick Barbarossa, 18, 36 
Frederick II., 21 
Frischlin, 81 
Funerals, 45 
Ghibbeline, 17 
Gonzaga, Barbara, 25 
Goppingen, 74 
Gravenitz, Countess, 29 
Guelph, 17 
Hasenberg, 66 
Hauff, William, 27, 28, 55, 70, 
71, 96 

Hegel, George W. H., 98 
Heilbronn, 13, 74 
Hohenasperg, 74 
Hohenneuffen, 66, 80 
Hehenstauffen, House of, 16; 

peak, 76; siege of, 77 
Hohentwiel, 83 
Hohen Urach, 81 
Hohenzollern, 8, 66, 82 
Holderlin, Johann C. F., 98 
Holidays, 48 
Honau, 69, 70 
Karl, King, 28, 30 



CONTENTS. 

Kepler, 91 
Kerner, 26, 33, 96 
Kircheim, 83 
Lauffen, 73 
Lichtenstein, 69 
Lorch, 74 
Magyars, 14 
Manfred, 22 
Maulbronn, 74, 87 
Meistersingers, 90 
Merseburg, 14 
Meurad, 12 
Minnesingers, 88 
Murrhardt, 72 
Nebelhohle, 69, 71 
Neckar, 5, n, 62, 64, 80 
Niebelungen Lied, 89 
Preszburg, 30 
Regiswindis, 12, 73 
Religion, 42 
RemSj 27 

Reutlmgen, 27, 70, 72, 87 
Romans, 10 
Rothenberg, 5, 62 
Rottenburg, 11 
Scheffel, von, 97 
Schiffauer, 87 
Schiller, 65, 93 
Schelling, von, 97 
Schubart, 92 
Schwab, Gustav, 97 
Stuttgart, 6, 65 
Titles, 55 
Tubingen, 25, 67 
Uhland, 95 
Ulm, 14, 84 

Ulrich, Duke, 26, 67, 79, 71 
Urach, 25 
Vineyards, 60 
Vogelweide, 20, 79 
Weddings, 45 
Weinsburg, 18 
Wiederhold, 83 
Wieland, 92 
Wildbad, 74 
William I., 30, 50, 62, 65 
William II., 31 
Wiirtemberg, House of, 22 
Zeithblom, 86 



NOTE. —The translations of Uhland's verses on pages 4 
and 32 were made for this volume by Mrs. Adolph Spaeth. 



SEP 1 1905 



